HxH: Beyond the Rift
by SW86
Summary: 5 years after canon, Killua has learned hacking from his brother, Kurapika has resolved the issue with the Phantom Troupe, and Gon has become a Hunter Examiner! The plot: Killua & Kurapika team up to discover the organization that hired PT to slaughter the Kurta Clan. Featuring Hacker Killua, an alliance between Kuroro and Kurapika, new nen abilities, OC friends and foes, and more!
1. Chapter 1

Welcome everyone! Please read, comment, enjoy, and come back for more! Will be updating regularly.

The background of the AU:

5 years after the dark continent arc, Killua has learned hacking from his brother Milluki, Kurapika has resolved the issue with the Phantom Troupe, and Gon has become a Hunter Examiner! The world has changed, but many things remain the same... welcome to **Hunter x Hunter: Beyond the Rift**!

The plot:

Killua & Kurapika team up to discover the organization that hired the Phantom Troupe to slaughter the Kurta Clan. Featuring hacker Killua, a beyond-revenge Kurapika, character development for Kuroro, an OC Kurta clan member, OC enemies and organizations, new nen abilities, fun plot twists and much more!

* * *

It was a lazy Friday afternoon at Yorkshin University. The sun reflected off of tall glass buildings and illuminated the grass lawns below with window-pane patterns, and students lazily walked along the long grassy malls on their way home from class. On Fridays everyone would go home, so the campus became vacant quite early.

Killua glided through the campus on his skateboard at a leisurely pace. He wasn't a student at the university (he was a single star hunter and too busy for school), but at 19 years old, he fit right in with his bag loosely slung over his shoulder, his shorts and t-shirt and his clear-rimmed rectangular glasses. He rode through the mostly empty campus, and if you looked at him for a while you would notice that he never propelled the skateboard himself. A closer look would reveal a small motor next to its wheels, and an even close look with gyo would reveal it being powered by his nen turned into electricity.

Killua breezed along until he reached the library, then swiftly kicked the skateboard into the air with his feet and caught it behind his back. He strapped it onto his bag and went in.

The university library was mostly empty. A few people were using the computers in the corner and there were a few more in the café, but other than that it was a slow day. Killua walked in, took a seat in the lounge, flipped a manga out of his bag and started to read.

He had spotted his target immediately, a young professor sitting at a computer in the far corner. Kurapika had made it easy for Killua to find him, giving him both his face and his location patterns in the mission briefing. If all went well, the target wouldn't even notice that he was there.

Killua flipped through the manga at a steady pace, chuckling to himself every so often and fidgeting his legs. His back was towards the public computers and he was a fair distance away. Killua found himself amused at all the precautions he was taking; most likely the target wasn't even a proficient nen user. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

Still, probably only the most astute hunters would have noticed the tiny fluctuation of Killua's tetsu. A tiny thread of nen snaked out from Killua's foot, going around the room and connecting itself to the back of a particular computer case. This particular nen ability, **circuit thread**, transmuted his nen into a thin conductive thread that could stick to any surface and enable the transmission of electricity to and from any object.

Killua used it to connect to his target's computer and he now was reading every signal sent to and from it. The signal fed into his nen supercomputer that translated it into relevant information, like keystrokes, onscreen display, programs being run, and anything else you would want to know, and that fed directly into Killua's consciousness, giving him instant access into everything that the computer was showing.

Killua quickly sorted through the information in his head and grinned. The target had his email open but was watching youtube on another tab. He quickly sent several electrical pulses to the target computer that would cause it to execute several email searches (all in the background, of course), and transferred the data over to himself. A quick initial scan of those emails looked promising; Kurapika didn't tell him much, but the amount of emails the searches brought up seemed to be a good sign.

Kurapika had also asked for his password, and while he could spend the time to brute force it, often there was a much easier way. Email searches for password hints came up with nothing, so Killua decided on a different approach. He sent a few more pulses over to the other computer, forcefully logging him out of his email and causing youtube to lag and then crash. And then he waited.

The older student was noticeably upset at the computer, even hitting it a few times. As he closed the tab that was frozen and glitching quite badly, he noticed his email had signed out, and reflexively signed himself back in. He then opened up youtube again, found his video, and did his best to roughly continue back at the same spot.

Killua grinned; he had a log of the keystrokes. He laughed a little as he flipped the last page of his manga, closed it, tossed it in his bag, and walked out, hands in his pockets. Mission accomplished.

* * *

Kurapika had set up his base of operations in a three bedroom house in one of the nicer parts of Yorkshin City. He was trying to track down any information on the organization behind the slaughter of the Kurta Clan, and Yorkshin was a convenient location to do that. There were plenty of information brokers, rich people, body collectors and other entities throughout the city that might prove useful to his search. It also happened that one of his surviving clan members was a freshman at Yorkshin University, and he wanted to be around her to make sure she was safe.

On this particular morning, Kurapika grabbed a rustic key from the bottom drawer of his desk and went to a locked door in the far end of the hallway. He unlocked it and stepped inside; it was dark and empty except for a large bookshelf on the far wall. Lining the shelves were glass dome cases, and in them, pairs of vibrantly red eyes.

Kurapika walked over to the bookshelf, picked up a set of eyes from the bottom row and put it on a shelf at eye level. He stared at the pair of eyes and the eyes stared back; the glass reflected his face, and Kurapika could see his own blank stare in the reflection. He shifted a bit to the left, and his black eyes became overlaid by the bright red ones.

He sighed, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. One eye turned red; the other stayed black. Slowly, his nen aura pulsated into life, and as it grew, it encased the dome and wrapped around the eyes. The eyes started to shine, and they took on an even brighter glean - if that was even possible - and then the world went black around Kurapika as he entered into memoryscape.

Kurapika watched, passively, as the scene played before his eyes. There were sounds of fighting and shouting in the background, and all around him was destruction and panic. He calmly surveyed the memory; he had seen this many times before. Before him stood one of the elders of the Kurta clan, Taiki, his eyes alight with fire and face in furled concentration. He faced a man with dark skin and strange tattoos on his side and back. It was one of the Phantom Troupe that wouldn't make it back alive.

"You can't gain anything from our eyes. People before you have tried and failed. Leave now or you'll regret it," Taiki said.

"Who said anything about that," the dark man replied. "I've been dying for a good fight, so get ready!" A cackle echoed from his lips and he clapped in twisted glee. "I heard you all are strong, and it was a pain in the butt to track you down and break your little barrier trick! You better give me a good time!" With that, he dashed towards Taiki, his hand growing into a vicious looking claw.

Taiki's nen aura flashed briefly, and the man's feet became glued to the ground. His momentum carried him face first into the ground in front of Taiki.

"What is this weak technique? I'll crush it!" the man shouted, getting up. He got into a crouch, and tried to break the hold by force, kicking off the ground with all his might. He only succeeded in face planting again as his feet stuck firmly in place.

Taiki spoke, his tone very even. "Who hired you? If you say who, I'll give you a fun fight - otherwise you'll stay in that spot forever."

The dark skin man cackled. "Hahaha! Are you trying to negotiate with me? Especially since -" the dark man faded out, and reappearing behind Taiki, clawed at his opponent's head. " - your tricks are useless against me!"

Taiki looked sliced through, but then turned into nen and faded away as he safely reappeared a good distance away. As the dark man landed from the attack, he once again found himself bound to the ground.

The dark man grinned. "Ok, we can play cat and mouse all day but I am itching for action. The boss doesn't even know the organization's name but we called them 'R'. Good enough?"

Taiki was silent for a moment. "Anything more?"

Another cackle from the dark man. "You won't even get out of here alive and you want more information! Play time is over, let's fight-" The words were cut off as his throat was sliced open by an invisible blade, and dozens of slashes appeared all over his body as he fell to the ground. The air pressure around him squeezed him like a sponge, and instantly the blood from his body sprayed out, sapping his strength. He weakly tried to get up, but the pressure combined with the blood loss was too much for him and he slumped to the ground. He tried to speak but it ended up in a gurgle, and then he was still.

"That's one of my least favorite abilities, you know." A Taiki outside of the memoryscape appeared behind Kurapika and was watching the scene as well. "If you wanted to talk to me, you could have just materialized me in the real world instead of browsing my memories."

"I wanted to see if I could gather any more leads," Kurapika replied, not looking away from the scene playing. The Taiki in the memory used his wind nen to slice up the body into pieces, making sure his opponent was dead for sure, and then ran off to another area with more activity.

"You have matured, Kurapika. This doesn't even stir you anymore. I would be very proud of you if I was alive," Taiki said, grinning. His body next to Kurapika's looked less solid and slightly transparent. Taiki's personality and memories were preserved by the special properties of the Kurta clan's nen, but his soul had departed long ago.

"You do live on - as long as the Kurta clan is still alive your memories will not leave. And for that to continue, I need to make sure that no one else is targeting the Kurta clan, now or in the future." Kurapika's face was emotionless as he spoke. He looked beyond the scene at the burning village, at faces he grew familiar with by living through the memory hundreds of times, at faces he loved despite only knowing their look of anguish and terror. "Your grand-daughter doesn't need to know about any of this."

Taiki grinned. "I think she's strong enough to bear the Kurta clan's burden. Afterall, she's got my genes."

Kurapika shook his head. "After I close this matter once for all, no one will have to bear it anymore." Taiki shook his head. He had a feeling the Kurta clan's burden was not going to disappear so easily. He looked at Kurapika, who was still staring off into the memoryscape, and tried to imagine the weight that was on his shoulders. It was far too much for someone to bear alone.

Suddenly Kurapika turned to Taiki, pointed at the dead corpse and pouted. "Couldn't you have gotten more information out of this guy? He died way too fast."

Tiaki smirked. "I didn't think he'd die that quickly either. Honestly, I thought he would escape my attack with his nen."

Kurapika sighed, and after some more silence, slowly let his aura recede. The memoryscape slowly faded around him, and he heard Taiki say in the distance - "You know we are always proud of you Kurapi-". He opened his eyes; they were both black again, and the empty room came into focus. He put the dome back on the bottom shelf and exited, locking the door.

* * *

Kurapika barely left the room when a voice spoke up from the direction of his blind spot.

"Yo," Killua said. He was leaning against a wall, his arms crossed, looking at Kurapika.

Kurapika looked over to Killua, silently cursing at himself for not noticing the former assassin's presence, and then started to walk down the hall. Killua pushed himself off the wall and followed.

"I investigated the person you gave me and found some interesting data." Killua said. "Who is he?"

Kurapika spoke in a subdued tone, the memoryscape still fresh in his mind. "He's a scientist studying the properties of nen. Specifically, his research is observing humans that could utilize nen at a high level."

Kurapika paused, wondering how much more he should say about his hunches. Then he mentally scolded himself - this was Killua he was talking to, one of his closest friends, and one whom he entrusted with many more important secrets than this one. Besides, if there was any common advice from his clan elders, it was to learn how to open to others.

So he continued. "In his research he references something he calls the rift, a state of mind in which humans can utilize all types of nen freely without any loss of effectiveness," Kurapika said simply.

Killua immediately understood. The Kurta clan's special nen was triggered when their emotions flared, and it gave them the ability to use any type of nen freely; it was the same concept as the rift. "Do you think he might be related to the organization you're looking for?"

"It is just a hunch, nothing more," Kurapika replied. "No one else in his research area uses the vocabulary he uses, so he stands out."

Killua waited silently. He knew that there must be something more that would cause him to pursue this lead. Kurapika was not a person to give out information lightly, but Killua had been around him long enough to realize that he was beginning to earn his trust. He grinned as Kurapika continued again after a short pause.

"In my clan's memories, the Phantom Troupe called the organization that hired them 'R'." Kurapika said.

Killua's heart skipped a beat. He knew from intuition alone that Kurapika was onto something. He felt his back shiver as Kurapika finished the thought. "I think it might be related to the rift."

* * *

And the author said, let there be plot! And there was plot. Or at least the beginning of it, anyhow.

The next chapter introduces an OC, Masumi Kurta, a member of the Kurta clan that survived! Who is she, what is she doing, how did she survive, and what is her role in the story? Well, it may not be answered completely next time, but it will eventually. Stay tuned! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Hey Everyone! I decided to update weekly on Fridays! Cheers!

Also, I know I named the OC Masumi but… originally I had her as Meri and I think it's fine to keep it that way. The naming scheme in HxH is actually quite cool and allows for some stretching so non Japanese name it is! It's pronounced May-rli, the Japanese way of saying Mary. :)

If you're wondering how I mix Japanese and English, I usually just forget about Japanese until it adds some meaning or subtle flavor to the text that English can't add, or if it's somewhat iconic for that character.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2

Killua didn't mind freeloading at Kurapika's place because the tension in his house had grown since they started talking about succession again. However, he had only been there for two months and, to put it bluntly, he was already bored out of his mind.

Kurapika had asked him to help with his search, but aside from a sprinkling of requests to spy on people, he mostly ignored Killua and worked on his own. This left Killua with nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in.

He tried to conduct his own search but was too impatient for this kind of work. He tried bugging Kurapika but he seemed immune to distractions.

So when they had finally found a substantial lead in the latest mission, he was actually quite excited to begin immediately. He had given the data to Kurapika to clean up, and by the next morning they were busy browsing through this poor professor's life history.

It was looking to be a quiet day of snooping until all of a sudden someone slammed open the front door and the house was filled with obscene yelling.

Killua looked up from the computer at Kurapika. "Did you forget to do something important for your sister again?"

"She's not my sister, she's my cousin-" Kurapika replied.

Just then a young woman with short blond hair burst into the room. She had on white tank top dress and her face was flushed red with anger. "Kurapika, BAKA!" She shouted. Kurapika shrank in his seat. "Gomen Meri - "

"Kurapika you always mess things up! This time I'm not going to forgive you!" Meri cried out, and Kurapika shrank even lower.

Killua sighed. "Ignore her and continue your work," he said, turning back to the computer.

Meri walked over to the desk, leaned in to see the monitor, and then slammed her fist down, causing Kurapika to flinch. "Killua kun, you stay out of this," she said, and then pointed at Kurapika accusingly. "I asked you to turn in my paper for me since I would be out of town! My professor asked me about it in front of the whole class, I was so embarrassed! How are you going to make it up to me?"

Killua was not pleased. ("...kun? I'm older than you.") "Serves you right Meri chan."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Meri yelled at Killua.

"You're not even angry, your eyes are still BLACK!" Killua said mockingly.

"BAKA Killua!"

"BAKA BAAAKKKAAA," Killua replied.

Simultaneously, they both stuck out their tongue and pulled their eyelid down at the same time. "BEEEEHHHH."

Kurapika interrupted the fight with an excuse. "Meri, I'm so sorry, I meant to do it but I got busy with my work and the professor-"

"You're way too obsessed with your work," Meri exclaimed, "you forget about anything that isn't related to your stupid research! This is the last time I'm asking you for help, too, I only did it 'cause you were so insistent on helping me out - "

"Meri chan, I'll make it up to you, I promise - " Kurapika said frantically.

"AND you only care about me if you think I'm in trouble, and you said you wanted us to be family but in reality you are TERRIBLE at being a brother, AND… you never let me help you out either Kurapika. BAKA." Meri chan stated, driving the final nail into the coffin. Well almost. A silence pervaded the room, followed by Killua's whispered musing.

"Kurapika... baka... ah! Kurabaka."

Kurapika glared at Killua. "Don't you dare."

But it was too late.

"KURABAKA!" Meri shouted, causing Kurapika to cringe. "KURA. BAKA!" She said again, and proceded to continue the verbal beat down.

To make it up, Kurapika ended up treating Meri to ice cream parfait, and any progress was halted for the rest of the day.

* * *

A week passed by and that feeling of progress turned into a weary despair. The promising leads that were potential secret agents each turned out to be normal people; interested colleagues, other Ph.D students, even some critics of the theory. Killua's hope turned into disbelief; he was so sure that Kurapika was onto something. But even when he scoured the person's email a second time, they still turned up nothing.

Killua was feeling tired of the long hours and meticulous scanning of so many documents, so when his older brother Milluki called him out of the blue, he was secretly quite happy.

"Yo, Killua, I need your special hacking skills for something."

Killua grinned. It had been almost a year since the two of them worked together. "Baka, just do it yourself."

"Come on, Killua don't be like that. If I could do it I would, you know that" Milluki said.

"Welllllllllll..." Killua said, and then deliberately went silent.

"Killua don't make me beg you. Who taught you everything you know about hacking?"

"Aniki, aren't you learning how to do transmutation into electricity too? How is that going?"

A sigh escaped from Milluki. "Making progress, but I'm no genius like you. It'll take another 3-4 years at least. Come on Killua this is something important." Milluki had a hint of desperation in his voice.

Of course, Killua never intended to deny Milluki's offer. He had grown close to his brother ever since Milluki had agreed to train Killua how to hack. During the two years of being with Milluki, he had grown fond of hacking together and relied on his expertise and knowledge. Their relationship had become much better since then, but Killua still liked to tease him and that would probably never change.

"Ok, fine, Aniki. But you owe me."

"Ok, I'll owe you since this is quite risky. The target is the Hunter Organization."

Killua bolted up straight and could almost see his older brother's smirk on the other side of the phone. The hunter organization was extremely difficult to hack, and that was one website that Milluki never wanted to mess with.

"But," Milluki added quickly, "it's not their main data center, it's a branch that is run by different people, so it should be easier to hack. The rewards might be insanely high though."

If Milluki thought the rewards could be high and even asked Killua to help, then it must have the potential to be very worth it. He did have a tendency to exaggerate, but he also had the experience to know the risk/reward tradeoffs for dangerous hacks like these.

"Ok. I'll head on home. See you in a bit." Killua said, and hung up immediately. He could see in his head Milluki doing his arm pump and jumping around otaku fashion, and he did not want to hear him celebrate in the background.

"Hey Kurapika!" Killua yelled as he poked his head into the study. Kurapika was still pouring over the documents, and he looked up at his friend. "I'm going home to do some missions for a couple of days. No, not those kinds of missions, just helping my brother with some computer stuff. I'll be back. Let Meri know when she stops by." Kurapika nodded and went back to his work.

Killua sighed; when Kurapika was working on something, he shut out the rest of the world. He probably didn't even hear him.

Killua darted outside and grabbed his electric motorcycle from the garage. He clicked on his helmet, used his aura to power the bike, and in no time was zooming down the highway to Ringon Airport to catch a jet home.

* * *

_Flashback: 3 years ago _

_As Killua stepped into the Zoldeck mansion, he heard the familiar screeches of his mother - "Killua, where have you been and why haven't you visited more often?" It was quickly followed by a strong, reassuring voice. "Hey Killua, welcome home," his Dad said with a warm smile. "Be sure to say hi to your brothers." _

_"Osu dad, mom. I"ll be visiting for a short while," Killua replied. He had been away on the dark continent for some time and was eager to return home and see his family. He was especially eager to catch up with Alluki, and he had created the perfect prank for another brother and couldn't wait to pull it off... _

_Killua headed down to the vault and opened it in a flash. _

_"Aniki!" Alluka said happily. "Play with me!" _

_"No. I'll play with you, but not as a request." Killua said. _

_Alluka went silent. "Gomen, Killua. Don't leave and don't be mad at me." _

_Killua smiled happily, and tossled his younger brother's hair. "It's ok Alluka. Bring Nanaki out, I want to see her!" _

_Alluka smiled, and then his eyes and mouth turned black. "Killua!" Nanaki gave him a hug. _

_"Nanaki, osu!" Killua said happily. "I have a lot of stories to tell you! Let me see…" Killua spent the rest of the afternoon recounting his experience on the dark continent with his younger sibling. _

_Later in the evening, Killua walked into his older brother Milluki's room. "Yo Milluki." Killua said. _

_"That was dangerous, refusing Alluka's request like that. You're a reckless brat." Milluki replied. _

_"Oh, you saw that?" Killua said, shrugging. "Oh Aniki, I wanted to show you the results of my training!" _

_Milluki scoffed. Another attempt of Killua at putting him down… he would ask Dad to give Killua punishment for it later. _

_He looked expectantly at Killua; nothing happened. "I'm waiting," he said miserably. _

_"Turn around, it's on your computer screen."_

_Milluki spun around, and sure enough, on his computer was a dancing Killua sprite and the words 'I am awesome!' scrolling around the screen. _

_Milluki was stunned and his mouth dropped. Killua started laughing uncontrollably. "Haha, your reaction is priceless!" He clutched his stomach and bent forward in mirth. _

_It took Milluki a while, but eventually he recovered, grabbed Killua and started shaking him violently. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" Milluki screamed at him. _

_Killua stopped laughing and got a little worried. Milluki usually took his pranks pretty badly, but this was going overboard. "Gomen Aniki, it's just a prank, I didn't do anything to your precious computer - " Killua said, but his brother cut him off. _

_"No, you don't understand! My computer is HACKER PROOF. It has the best security system there is - I made it myself! There's no possible way for you to do anything to it! How did you do that?" _

_Killua rubbed the back of his head. Did he really do something that impossible? "I just kinda somehow did it (nanto naku)"._

_"Show me." Milluki stated, and let go of Killua. _

_Killua took a step away from his brother and then nodded dumbly. "Etto… so I have a nen ability that allows me to create circuits…" He used his nen ability circuit thread and connected to Milluki's computer. _

_"Then I find your cpu and directly connect to it, and send certain electrical pulses that force it to execute certain commands." He proceeded to do it, and sure enough, the dancing Killua and text came up again. _

_Milluki was stunned. A hardware-level hack! This was unprecedented in the hacking community. It was theoretically possible but impractical even with many nen abilities, since it was so difficult to create the right signal and send it to the right place._

_His brother, the brat that he is, had just managed to do something incredible and so easily, too! He really was a genius, Milluki thought with amazement. A small part of him felt envious, but the rest of him was giddy with all the possibilities this opened up. He felt, right there and then, an uncontrollable urge to take Killua under his wing, teach him everything that he knew about hacking and help Killua to perfect his technique. His inner self was reminding that this was brat Killua, the boy genius who always belittled him and showed him up._

_But today he saw Killua differently; he saw him as a fellow hacker._

_"Killua, how would you like to learn how to hack?" Milluki asked._

* * *

Thanks for all the reviews and the favs! They're very encouraging, keep it up! :)


	3. Chapter 3

TiramisuCoffee - thanks for the reviews! I'm trying to stay as in character as possible and am glad that someone can tell!

I have a Leorio cameo planned and a smaller Gon part. Leorio and Meri's interaction is a fun time bomb waiting to be written.

* * *

Chapter 3

_"Killua, how would you like to learn how to hack?" Milluki asked._

* * *

That was three years ago, and Killua remembered that question because it wasn't anything like what he imagined Milluki's response would be. He thought Milluki would get into a rage and start beating him, or throw a tantrum and call Dad over, but to train him? That was unexpected.

Killua snapped back to the present. He looked out the window of his plane that was flying from Ringon Airport to Kukuroo Mountain and propped his chin on his hand. Even though his relationship with Milluki had gotten better, he was still at odds with many of his family members, and he hoped no major disputes would break out from his temporary stay.

There was also talk of succession again with Killua at the center of it and tension was high among the entire family as they each had their own view. So when Kurapika asked him to stay over and help him search for clues about the attack on his clan, he promptly agreed and left. It wasn't meant to be permanent; he planned to come back after a couple of months when the drama settled down.

Hopefully it did. Killua pushed any dark thoughts away and as the plane descended he caught a glimpse of the mountain in the distance. A twinge of excitement sprang up in Killua's heart - it was good to be home.

* * *

Killua arrived at the familiar testing gate and looked up. _Sixth door,_ he thought to himself and gathered his nen. Gon had come with him a couple of months ago and had managed to open the sixth door (and complained that it wasn't the seventh), but then again Gon was a monster. Killua estimated that Gon would eventually open the seventh door in his mid 20s. Most of his family's upper limit was the sixth door; only a couple of members in his family's history could open the seventh, including his dad Silva.

Suddenly, he let out his hatsu, and a massive amount of nen was released. _Everyone should definitely know I am home now,_ he thought to himself, and gathered his nen into his hands and feet.

**PUSH!** Killua slammed his hands against the door and leaned in. For a second nothing happened; then there was a loud creak as the door slowly began to swing open.

One, two, three, four, five doors began to move… and that was it. Killua pushed the doors open and stepped inside. He looked back - sure enough, he was still only at five doors. He definitely felt closer to the sixth door than last time but it was hard to tell when he would finally open it.

"Welcome home, Master Killua," his family butler, Gotoh, was standing next to the gate, and bowed slightly. Next to him, Canary stood bowed as well, and behind them their giant hound, Mike, panted silently.

"Yo, Gotoh, Canary." Killua said. "Long time no see. Have things settled down a bit since last time?"

"I believe you will find the mansion much more peaceful," Gotoh replied, still bowed. "Would you like me to inform the others of your arrival?"

"They probably know already, but please do. Tell them I'm here to do some computer stuff with Milluki."

His family had mixed opinions on Killua's newfound direction in hacking. Silva thought Killua was becoming soft, but Zeno argued that many missions these days could done much more efficiently with the proper information. They did agree that it was a great help to Milluki, who started to practice his nen, physical training and combat skills in preparation for the hunter exam.

Gotoh stood up straight and nodded. "Ok, Master Killua, enjoy your time here," he said, and disappeared in a flash.

Canary was still bowed and Killua addressed her. "Yo, Canary, thanks for taking care of Mike while I was gone." He walked over to Mike and slapped his foot. "Good dog!" He said, and then ran off to the main mansion.

* * *

"Yo, Milluki, I'm home!" Killua shouted as he raced into the room. Milluki was sitting at his computer, his back turned to the entrance. The glow of the computer screen radiated around him.

"Killua!" Milluki said, turning around to greet him. "I upgraded my system to be hacker proof again! This time I don't think you'll be able to break it - " He glanced back and jumped as his computer screen showed a dancing Killua sprite and the words 'I am awesome!'.

"Ahhh! How did you do that so quickly?" Milluki cried.

Killua grinned. Trolling his brother was so easy and always the highlight of his trips home.

Milluki scowled. "I have a nen shield on my computer and would have detected if you used your nen on it… and I used gyo and didn't see any nen at all."

"That's because I put my circuit threads in your blind spot," Killua said as moved to the left a bit, and sure enough a tiny circuit thread behind him became visible to Milluki. It snaked up into the crevice of the doorway, out of sight from Milluki's perspective, and eventually reappeared out of a vent in the ceiling and ran down the wall to his monitor.

"And I didn't hack your computer; I just took over your monitor and changed what it showed." Killua had cat-like eyes and a smirk on his face.

"You cheater Killua!" Milluki cried.

Killua just laughed. "Aniki, are there any upgrades that you can do on my nen computer?"

Milluki sat back down at his computer and grumbled to himself. _"(Akari chan, Killua is such a brat. Just wait, I'm going to get Father to punish him and I'll give him time with my lovely whip…)"_ He mumbled some other nonsensical words as he looked up several computer websites.

"Yeah, there seems to be a new supercomputer memory that will double your RAM, but I'll need to grab the spec from the company..." Milluki said, and started typing violently.

"Ooh, can I hack them?" Killua asked.

"Too late, I already got it," Milluki replied. Killua grumbled '_tsk, no fair_', and then focused his aura, conjuring up his nen computer. He also conjured up a blank empty square circuit board and waited.

"Ok, I coded the spec up into instructions that you can run." Milluki said, handing him a cable. Killua took the cable and deftly plugged into his computer, and then rolled up his sleeves and rested his right hand over the empty board. "Ok, let's start." Killua said.

Milluki clicked the file and then stepped over to Killua to observe. Killua's arm glowed as Godspeed activated, and he began drawing out a circuit on the circuit board at an incredibly fast pace. The computer was feeding extremely accurate movements into Killua's arm and it became a blur as it traversed all over the board. A complex glowing circuit of nen began to form.

After two minutes, Killua's arm slowed down as he made the final touches to the new memory card. Eventually his arm stopped and the nen aura faded. The circuit board winked out of existence and in its place a memory card popped into being.

Killua took the memory card, opened up his nen computer, plugged it in, and closed it back up. The computer immediately booted, and after several diagnostics was up and running just fine.

Milluki was staring the whole time, drool leaking out of the corner of his mouth. "I never get tired of watching you do that," he said.

Killua grinned again. "Ok, let's get started on the mission."

* * *

Omake time! **The birth of the nen computer.**

Time period: about one year after the start of _Milluki's intense hacker training course from hell (c)_

"Hey, Aniki…" Killua groaned. "I'm soooooo not ready to learn anything more. My head is going to split."

"Quit your complaining gaki! Finish up this problem or I'll have you spend some time with whip chan," Milluki spit back.

_(the next day...)_

"Annnniiiiikkki, I've been handling computers every day for the past year - I'm swimming through them just to get to my bed. I even dream about them."

**Crack!** The whip snapped in Milluki's hand.

_(the next day…)_

"Annn-"

**Crack!**

"-niii -"

**kuh-POWW!**

"- kiiiii -"

**kuh-POWWW! wuh-PAHH PAHH PAHHH!**

Milluki swung the whip at Killua in a desperate attempt to keep him awake.

"They're calling to me… I'm going to _mumble mumble_…" Killua slumped sideways and promptly started snoozing.

Milluki looked at him and sighed. Might as well give another one for good measure - **wuh-PAHHH!**

_(the next day…)_

"Aniki look! In my dream I conjured a nen computer."

"WHAAATTTT?"

**wuh-PAHHHHHH!**

_(later that night…)_

Milluki pouted. I've been around computers a lot longer than Killua. _Why didn't I conjure up a computer of my own?_ He knew that as a manipulator he was farther away from conjuration nen, but he still believed he could do it **if** he put his mind to it.

He went to bed that night and dreamed. It was pitch black all around him and he felt something calling to him. _At last,_ he thought! He looked up in front of him expectantly.

**"Milluki Kuuuunnnnn!"** His favorite anime character Akari chan cooed at him, her arms stretched out to receive him in a hug. Milluki sweat dropped. And then he replied…

**"Akari Chaannnn!"** He cried and reached out and hugged her.

Then he woke up and sweat dropped again.

* * *

Reviews are greatly appreciated! Because this chapter is short, I think I'll publish another one early next week, like... Tuesday.

Thanks for reading, see you next week!


	4. Chapter 4

Sigh, the HxH world is not that well defined, so there's not that many places to choose from to weave into the story. Oh well.

Thanks for the reviews and enjoy :). Hopefully I'll post another chapter on Friday.

* * *

Killua looked out over Zaban City as his plane descended, ready to land. It was the last day of Autumn on the calendar but the weather was still summer-esque. The bright sun flooded Zaban City and even the shady parts of town had a warm up-beat feel.

Killua shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the plane landed. He wasn't exactly nervous - he had been on many assassination missions before - but while he had a lot of experience killing, today was his first major hacking mission. Killua remembered vividly his first assassination ever; the unknowns terrified him and his head was swimming with the fear of impossibly strong nen abilities and super human observation skills. Today had a similar feeling.

Killua headed out of the airport and onto the street, where he hailed a cab and gave him directions for the Hunter Information Trading and Analytics Center. It was located in the technology district of Zaban City, one of the newer developing tech hubs. As he sat in the cab he looked out of the window and surveyed the city; flashing billboards, fancy vehicles, electronic shops, and a new age punk feel permeated the place. He felt a twinge of regret that he didn't bring his skateboard; it would have fit right in.

The HITAC was a new center that recently opened up and it served both as a trading hub for information and a job board for information hunters. Milluki had found out about it a couple of months ago, and it was part of the reason he finally dedicated himself to passing the hunter exam. But in addition to that, he discovered that the security systems there were different from the main Hunter website, and easier (but still difficult) to maneuver around. They also had a much freer policy on visitation and had fewer people on security at the site. Milluki concluded from the setup that the Hunter Organization's main security team wasn't involved.

Milluki suspected that at least part of its role is backing up vital information from the main database, and if that was the case then it would be a treasure trove indeed. To freely access even small amounts of Hunter data was extremely valuable.

For the mission, he had given Killua a program that could copy terabytes of data in a matter of seconds and then completely hide any activity that it caused. There was absolutely no way to tell if the program had been run, or even existed on the target computer. However, what he needed Killua for was to bypass the security systems, which were still very difficult to break.

So in terms of execution, the mission was quite simple:

Mission steps:

1. Arrive at Center

2. Fill out and turn in application for information hunting job (used as alibi)

3. Use nen to find and connect to computers

4. Run program, wait

5. Get out of there

The cab stopped in the heart of Zaban's technology district, and Killua got and and surveyed his surroundings. Tall skyscrapers lined the narrow streets but the HITAC stood out with its modern construction. It looked like a tall black obelisk with a dull metallic sheen to its walls. Scattered among the top floors were large open air balconies, but other than that the building seemed to have a guarded personality, hiding any activity that might be going on inside.

Killua stepped through the automatic glass doors of the HITAC and cool indoor air hit him in the face. He walked down the hall and ended up in a modern looking bar; public terminals lined the far end of it, but other than that, it shared the dim light and rough edges that most bars exhibited. Since it was 2pm in the afternoon, it was empty except for the bartender who was cleaning glasses. Killua sat down at the counter, and noticed immediately a computer station behind it. It was positioned carefully so that there was no angle that you could see it from the pub, and he also noted that the computer radiated a strange aura which he guessed it was a nen barrier of sorts. That computer wouldn't be his target; most likely there was a data center in the basement filled with servers that would be easier to hit.

The bartender looked at his guest. "A little early in the day for drinking," he noted.

Killua nodded. "I need an application for information hunter jobs."

The bartender held out his hand. _Oh, so that's how it's is_, Killua thought. He dug out a bill and placed it on the counter. The bartender reached under the counter and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper. He handed it to Killua, who took them and deftly filled them out.

He handed the papers back to the bartender with another bill and said, "Got any news for me?" The bartender took the application, and then held out his hand again. Killua scoffed and then gave him two more bills.

The bartender took it and said, looking straight at Killua with a questioning glare - "Word is that someone is going to come today to try to hack into our system. We've put extra measure in place to make sure it doesn't happen."

The bartender was drying a glass cup nonchalantly as he spoke. Killua maintained his cool outwardly but inwardly was on high alert. _They somehow knew about us!_ Killua resisted the urge to get out of there immediately; his mind detected that something wasn't quite right. After a couple of moments Killua realized what it was.

The bartender continued. "It wouldn't happen to be you, right?"

Killua smiled. "Of course not," he said nonchalantly, "and that's hardly worth what I paid you."

The bartender smiled back. "I think it is, if it stops you from getting yourself killed."

Killua's smile disappeared, and all of a sudden stood up and leaned in, his face twisted in an evil grin and his eyes alight with sick glee. **"Why steal when it's so much easier just to kill you for it?"** He grabbed the bartender by the collar and unleashed his aura - waves of nen and killing intent flooded the entire building. The bartender desperately tried to maintain his cool. Beads of sweat grew instantly on his face like large tear drops. He tried to speak something but could only stutter.

Killua let his nen recede, and his face turned cheerful again as he sat down. "Just kidding, I wouldn't do that," he said with a smirk. "Again, I'm just here to fill out an application." He slid off the stool and began to walk out. The bartender dropped the glass that he was cleaning, and the only sound heard in the room was it shattering on the floor.

"But," Killua said, turning his head back, "that information was worth it I guess. I was thinking about trying to hack here someday, but it seems bothersome now. I'll be back here again to buy more information from you, so see you soon."

Killua ignored the stunned look at the bartender and the terror that washed over his face when Killua said he'd be back. He walked calmly down the hallway and out; no one stopped him. He took the next flight home, and along the way Killua considered everything that happened and tried to make sense of it all. _How did they know someone was going to try something that day?_

* * *

A tall, graying man looked at the poem in his hand that radiated slightly with nen.

_…_

_Guard your treasures well or else_

_They'll be in another's hands._

_A tiny crack can cause a breach_

_on the day that autumn ends._

_._

_The past has still one untied thread…_

...

The man had slick hair and an expensive business suit, and he gave off an aura of importance. He was in a dark conference room with two other men, and he paced along the far off wall while the other two sat down at the table, vanilla folders in front of them with bold letters that said HITAC Security.

"So no one breached the data centers today?" He asked, not looking behind him at the other two men in the room.

"The doors were locked and barricaded with nen, as well as any windows, vents, cracks and any other openings larger than an inch," one of the men replied, annoyance escaping from his voice. Apparently completely sealing off the data center was a rather ridiculous task, but the boss was insistent on making sure every nook and cranny was accounted for.

"Good," the boss said. "and there was no nen activity near the data centers either?"

"None. Any nen, no matter how small of an amount, would have been detected and stopped instantly by our technique."

The boss nodded. It looked like they had stopped the predicted theft. He was right to have struck that deal with his old client; it looked like his new abilities would prove useful in the long run.

"The only nen we detected was that vicious killing aura," the man said, shuddering a little. The boss paused slightly; he would have to review that. "We looked into the instigator - Killua Zoldeck, the expected successor of the Zoldeck family. His brother Milluki is known to be a hacker, but Killua appears to be going a different direction, getting a hunter license, getting involved with the Chimera Ants and the dark continent, and most recently going home and taking up the family business. He did mention trying to get Milluki to hack the place."

The boss considered the scenario; the Zoldeck family wanted to take information jobs. The situation checked out in his head - more information would help their assassinations, he thought. Killua was evolving the assassination business to fit the modern age, and it was a direction that he agreed with; he liked this young leader. _Maybe I should use them sometime,_ he thought, before squashing the idea. Those who relied on assassins tended to die by them as well.

"Alright, very well. Run a scan on the data on the data center just in case, and then put the complete security report on my table tomorrow morning," The boss said, looking down at the prophecy again. "You are dismissed."

* * *

Killua walked into his brother's room and stood by the doorway. Milluki was anticipating his arrival all day, and turned around with giddy anticipation.

"Milluki, someone knew about our plan and ratted us out," Killua said quickly before Milluki could say anything.

Milluki's face fell; he expected good news and he was dreaming about the treasure trove of information that Killua would have brought back.

"What?" he exclaimed. "How could that have happened?"

"I walked in and filled out the application just as planned. But while I was trying to get information from the bartender, he instead warned me not to try to hack the place."

Milluki scratched his chin. "Why the heck do they have a bartender there?"

Killua sighed. "He's an information broker..."

Milluki shrugged. "Alright, well I'm sure I didn't leak the information; we planned this verbally and never wrote anything down, and my hacking is untraceable." Milluki had a smug look, as if he was saying _'well, it couldn't be my fault'._

Killua made eye contact with his older brother. "You could have set me up," he said accusingly.

Milluki was visibly shocked, looked down at the floor and grew pink in the ears. "K-Killua I w-would never do that to you, I c-c-couldn't have set you up - I mean, technically could have, no, I mean, but - "

Killua burst out laughing. "Baka, of course you didn't do it."

Milluki grew even redder. "No, o-of course I didn't. Wait, why didn't I?"

Killua pointed over to his anime collection; rows upon rows of figurines filled an entire bookshelf, and there were more in boxes lying around on the floor. "You're a rather straightforward person and you don't hide much. You're very honest with your feelings." _It's why I can respect you and work with you; you're much more honest than I am._

Milluki gained his composure. "Of course I would be honest with my feelings," he muttered. _Killua I'm gonna feed you to Mike someday..._

"And the way that the bartender gave the information was suspicious," Killua said. "They didn't know who it was but they did know that it would happen that day. I suspect they were trying to threaten everyone who came in so that if they came across the potential hacker - "

"- he would be too scared to try anything, right?" Milluki finished. "That's a typical dissuasion tactic, huh." The Zoldeck family was an expert in security systems, and they were familiar with this type of ploy. If an attacker is unknown but supposed to be strong, make them too timid to try anything and you'll have fended him off without confronting him.

"Yup, and it pissed me off, so I concentrated my killing intent on the bartender," Killua said. "Poor guy."

Milluki sighed. "Regardless, they still knew about us? That's not fair! And you didn't get any data off of them, too - "

"Wait, who said anything about that!" Killua said with a smirk.

A ray of hope parted Milluki's furled brow as it relaxed, giving way to a look of amazement.

"You mean..."

Killua held out his hand, and Milluki stared at it with wide eyes. His aura glowed and a flash drive popped into existence. Milluki looked the hand, then back up to Killua, and then back at the hand. He gaped and looked back and forth a few more times.

"Tsk, as if those second rate hunters could stop me," Killua said. "While I was leaking out killing intent, I also threaded my nen circuit into a nearby outlet, followed the wiring until I found the data center and ran your program on one of the computers. It was pretty easy, honestly."

Milluki was silent from the shock, and then suddenly grabbed Killua in a huge bear hug. "Killua, you evil genius!"

"Geroff me, you stink!" Killua replied, pushing his brother away.

Milluki grabbed the flash drive and held it delicately in his fingers, staring at the treasure. Then he copied the files onto his computer, leaned back in his chair, giddy. "Alright, time to see what we've got."

* * *

The files were encrypted, so it would take a a couple of weeks before they could actually see the data; but it seemed like Milluki was right on. They were most likely backups of the hunter organization's information database. Jackpot.

After dinner Killua called Kurapika to let him know he would be back tomorrow (and got the same dead-pan voice that meant Kurapika was working too hard and zoning him out), and then went to his room for the night. Right as he climbed into bed, his dad appeared at his door.

"Son," Silva said hesitantly and with a worried parental tone - "we've noticed you've been spending a lot of time with Milluki on the computer. Zeno and I had a talk, and we want to make sure you're still progressing in your training." Silva noted that Killua was no longer a kid, but he still saw him as a child - one whom he needed to guide. Yes, he was the head of the strongest assassin family, but he was still a Dad after all.

"Tomorrow before you head out, come down to the sparring room and we'll test your combat skills since the last time you were home."

"Ok Dad," Killua called to him.

"Alright, good night," Silva said and flicked off the lights.


	5. Chapter 5

TiramisuCoffee - Kuroro plays a big part in this story :) It might take a while before I get to him though...

SpadePirates4Eva - poor, poor bartender. He doesn't get paid nearly as much as he should. :P

* * *

The next morning Killua met Silva and Zeno in the basement of one of the smaller mansions on the Zoldeck property. It was a large, well-lit dojo with various forms of training equipment stored in the corners.

Silva stood opposite Killua and glanced over his son. He was tall and graceful, wore a t-shirt and shorts, and had on a pair of glasses that made him look older than 19. His body was still maturing but was well toned and lithe.

"Killua, you'll spar with me while your grandfather observes. If you don't pass you'll be grounded and put on a tough training schedule, and we'll limit your computer time. If you don't want that, don't hold back!"

Killua grinned. He had learned from a young age to never hold back or face a beat down he would never forget, and today he had some new tricks he was dying to try. He wouldn't use his yoyo this time, as he was making a new technique out of them - but he thought the other techniques he'd invented would show plenty of progress. _Who knows, I might even score a hit._

Zeno got up and walked over to the both of them. He put his arm out in between father and son and looked at each of them. "Ready... Start!" He lifted his hand and jumped back to the sidelines.

Killua immediately jumped back but his father didn't move. His father grinned and went into a fighting stance. "Not going to attack?"

Killua grinned back. Just then threads of nen spread out from Killua's feet, criss-crossing with each other, and instantly formed checkerboard pattern on the floor in a 30 foot zone around Killua.

Zeno's eyes lit up as he studied the technique. Hmm, this field looks similar to En. It is more sparse and can't detect as much, but takes much less concentration and nen to keep up, and it can probably stretch farther. It seems to enhance his ability to read his opponent, but I wonder if there is something more -

"Lightning Speed!" Killua whispered, and he instantly dashed forward, his hand becoming a spear point as he attempted to take Silva's heart out from him.

Zeno's eyes lit up even more. The field was used to track his opponents movements, and combined with his lightning speed, it could be extremely difficult to handle.

Even with such a large distance between the two, Silva barely managed to react in time. He brought his arm to grab Killua before he could reach him - but with instant response time, Killua bent his arm to dodge the grab, causing his dad to miss his counter. For the first time in a long, long while, Silva felt a sharp point touch his chest.

Killua's hand barely touched him before he dodged the rest of the move, jumping back in a crouch.

Silva stood up and felt his chest. A tiny drop of blood came off onto his hand.

Killua shouted over to his dad. "How'd you like that technique?"

His dad laughed. "That was something alright! You were right to try to catch me off guard, but don't think you'll get anything like that again."

Killua smirked. "Right dad, we'll see about that," he muttered, and then disappeared again, this time closing the gap to engage in hand to hand combat.

Silva's technique in hand to hand combat was first class; He was accurate, fast, and above all else, monstrously strong. He held back as he sparred with Killua, barely using 30% of his power.

Killua instantly felt the difference between the two skill levels. His dad was so efficient in his movements and his punches hit like trucks! He probably wasn't even using half of his power either, Killua thought. He attacked cautiously, probing his dad's style and not over-committing.

His new program was meant help him against stronger opponents, but it took some time to kick in. The nen field tracked all of his opponent's movements, and a camera on Killua's glasses recorded his opponent's combat style and reaction time. All of this data was sent to his nen computer, which looked for potential weaknesses.

After a minute of sparring, the computer began to highlight areas that were less guarded and timings he could exploit. After a punch or a kick, different areas of Silva's body would glow momentarily, signalling the weakest areas to attack. Against his dad, it was practically useless; his form was perfect, there were virtually no holes anywhere, and the timing windows to counter were depressingly small. Killua felt slightly defeated, and then disengaged, retreating slightly.

His dad let him back off, but gave him a stare that said, _is that all?_

Far from it. "Sync mode activate!" Killua said, his nen aura flaring, and engaged his dad once again.

Killua attacked recklessly, and his dad was surprised at such barbaric movements. Killua seemed to be throwing his weight in his punches and kicks, which gave them more power but also exposed him to counter attacks more readily. Suddenly, Killua threw a punch that was too strong and left a wide opening in his right side.

_Hmm, this is too reckless even for Killua,_ his dad thought, but he couldn't see how Killua could counter in his current position. He shifted his feet and did a roundhouse kick at Killua's open side.

With perfect reflexes and timing, Killua shifted his weight, lifted his right leg and stomped down on the kick. It connected solidly with Silva's leg, causing his kick to dip lower while Killua jumped up and performed his own spinning kick to Silva's head. Silva was surprised to find that he didn't have the right position to block, and he was forced to dodge, ducking his head.

Zeno watched in fascination. Killua 's response time to the attack was instantaneous. He wasn't relying on reflex or muscle twitch; rather Killua was moving in perfect sync with his opponent, combining a complete read of his opponent with instantaneous responsiveness. Not only that, but he was defying all the principles of close combat, leaving himself open, ignoring openings and holes and attacking seemingly at random but resulting in superior positioning and effective counters. It seemed that he had a created new style of close combat - it was still raw and could be improved, but it was impressive nonetheless.

Zeno noticed the glow from Killua's glasses and field on the ground. _Those must be the ability giving him precise data on Silva's movements,_ he mused, as Killua continued to attack in a seemingly random manner. Silva had come close to being hit by Killua's reckless style, and he no longer attacked openings so readily for fear of being punished.

He tried a few more strikes and maneuvers that were deftly countered, and then decided Killua had graduated from basic sparring. His aura flickered to life as he started emitting large amounts of nen from his hands. Immediately each of his hands were surrounded by a sphere of nen the size of a basketball. He looked like he had just put on some rather large nen boxing gloves.

Killua immediately realized that it was dangerous to stay in close combat. He tried to disengage, but his dad stuck to him like glue. His nen supercomputer, which had been coming up with movement patterns to attack, was now frantically trying to come up with a movement pattern to retreat. It seemed to be failing.

Silva ducked a punch, and in a series of counters and blocks, finally got a solid swing at Killua's chest. Killua tried to dodge, jumping back, but the nen glove grew in size, preventing any chance of maneuvering away from it and hit Killua square on, sending him flying. He bounced and skid on the ground a bit before controlling himself into a roll and getting up.

Killua would have used 'fluffy and soft' to describe his dad's nen; it felt like he had just gotten smacked really hard by a giant pillow. Of course, it was just sparring practice, so his dad wouldn't hit him with anything lethal, but it was more than enough for Killua to realize that in one on one combat his dad was downright scary.

Killua fell to one knee as he tried to catch his breath and orient himself. _Kuso,_ he thought to himself silently. It would still be a while before he found a close combat technique that could match his Dad's.

"Alright Dad, I'll show you one last technique." Killua said, panting slightly. His Dad nodded.

Gathering, himself, Killua once again flared his nen. "Here I come!" he shouted.

He activated Lightning Speed, and once again dashed at his dad, his hand reaching out to grab his heart from him.

Silva guessed that this move could only attack in a straight line, and dodged right, but was surprised to see Killua seemingly change his direction mid dash and still moving towards him. His dad took one look at the Killua charging at him - his face was twisted into an evil grin, and his eyes took on a sadistic glare. This was the side of Killua the assassin training had brought out of him - Killua's dark side - and he was still headed at him at full speed.

Silva jumped backwards several more times, but each time Killua seamlessly changed his direction and kept his course.

Zeno saw what was going on - Killua had created a nen duplicate of himself. The charging one defied physics when he moved and was definitely the nen clone, but it took a moment to find the real Killua, who was in Silva's blind spot.

The Evil Killua eventually got close enough to Silva to engage, but Silva easily landed a punch on his side. However, instead of flying back like Killua usually did, the punch dissipated the side, creating a large hole in it. _Shoot,_ thought Silva.

Evil Killua grinned and grabbed Silva's arm. The nen body flickered out, but right before it disappeared, it turned into electricity and gave him a massive jolt. At the same moment, the real Killua appeared behind Silva gave him the patented backhand chop to the neck.

Silva was used to electrocution and it hardly affected him. It did, however, slow him down ever so slightly, slightly enough that, combined with the surprise attack, Killua managed to scrape his neck ever so slightly before Silva rolled away.

There was silence on the sparring field as his dad turned to Killua. Then he rubbed the back of his neck - a slight tingling there indicated a hit, albeit barely. "Ok Killua, that seems good enough. Is that your first hit on me? Pity that it was so light." His dad had a fierce grin on his face; in combat he became alive and fiery, and was kind of a trash talker.

Silva breathed out his adrenaline rush, and calmed himself down before looking over to the sidelines at his father. "Zeno, does he pass?"

Zeno looked at his grandson with some consideration.

"Hmm..." he muttered, reviewing the fight in his head. Zeno put his hands behind his back, walked up to Silva and nodded at him. "I'll need some more information. Let me fight for a bit." Silva nodded back and walked off to the side, crossed his arms and sat down to observe.

Hands still behind his back, Zeno nodded to Killua. "Ok, you can begin," he said. Killua grinned. To be able to fight his grandfather - now that was a treat!

Killua dashed at Zeno and began a series of very fast punches and kicks, all of which Zeno blocked easily.

"A fast and precise combat style," muttered Zeno, "that learns from your opponent's own style and tries to exploit their weaknesses." He blocked some more punches and kicks and then threw some unexpected strikes of his own in. Killua showed some shock on his face but he managed to block them.

"Very good reflexes and prediction capacities too. Alright Killua," Zeno said while still going on the offensive. "Switch to your new style."

Killua looked up to his grandfather and nodded, activating sync mode. For a second, he paused. Then he suddenly ducked down low and went to grab Zeno's foot.

"Hmm interesting. If I lift up here then he would attack from there - " Zeno lifted up his foot, and sure enough, Killua planted his hands and spun, doing a spinning kick to Zeno's side.

" - and that leaves his side open, which would make me want to strike at it -" he flipped backwards to dodge and at the same time kicked up at Killua, which was also dodged. "And he then counters by throwing a punch here - " Zeno landed on one hand, using the other hand to catch a punch from Killua who had collected himself and had rushed at his exposed head.

Killua was amazed. Zeno predicted the moves of that his nen computer suggested before they came out. He not only matched the analysis and observation of his nen computer, but he outclassed it easily. After more back and forth attacks, Zeno maneuvered Killua into a position where his string of counters ended and his back was left wide open, and he kicked Killua in the back.

"Good, you pass," Zeno said to Killua as he sent him sprawling. Killua hit the floor face first right next to Silva, who laughed seeing Killua's bewildered expression.

"That is a great technique for your age," Zeno said, and Silva nodded. "That level of combat is something even Silva hasn't mastered yet. Of course, for me it's nothing," Zeno said lightly.

Silva pulled Killua up and patted him on the back. "That is a scary combat strategy for any normal human. You leave holes that requires perfect reaction time and speed to block, otherwise you can really eat it - but in return, your opponent has to do the same when they attack you. It requires incredible precision, speed and prediction - is that what your nen ability gives you?"

Killua nodded. "My nen ability, circuit field, gives me a complete read on the surroundings and I use my Whirlwind nen ability to bypass my nervous system and react instantly to them. My nen supercomputer can calculate really good attack and counter patterns to supplement these abilities, and it creates a style that specifically counters any combat style it observes. "

"What about your other skill, the one where you make a copy of yourself?" Zeno asked.

In hearing the question, Killua grew more solemn. That technique was born because of his past; he had spent a long time wrestling with his evil embittered self and finally had come to terms with him. "The nen ability gives my killer side, Dark Killua, a nen body to do whatever he wants. Because he is just me, he usually does everything I do, except that he is pretty sadistic and ruthless, killing without a second thought. He's battle hungry but efficient." A perfect assassin, Killua thought. Just what the family wanted me to be.

"Hmmph." Zeno said. Dark Killua would make a good assassin, yes, but it would make for bad business.

"Alright," Zeno said, putting his hands behind his back again. "Your weakest area seems to be your power. Sometimes you'll come across defenses where the only answer is to use brute force. When you get back from your current assignment with your friend, we'll work on it." Zeno held his head high but gave an approving look down at his grandson.

"Osu!" Killua replied.

Silva gave Killua a pat on the back. "Son, keep taking good care of your friends, especially ones that stick with you. The world is becoming more dangerous and it is getting more difficult to make it on your own without help."

Killua considered what happened with the Chimera Ants and in the Dark Continent, and silently agreed before bowing slightly and walking out.

It was only after an hour, when he was all packed up and at the airport that he finally let out his excitement. "Yoshaaaa!" Killua yelled, fist pumping. "I finally landed a hit on dad!"

* * *

Thanks for reading, reviews, favs, and follows appreciated. :) See you next week!

SpadePirates4Eva


	6. Chapter 6

Enjoy!

* * *

"Tadaima!" Killua shouted as he stepped into the quiet house in the Yorkshin suburb. He poked his head into the study expecting to see Kurapika glued to the computer but was surprised to find it empty. A quick scan of the house showed that Kurapika was indeed out, so Killua went to his room, dropped off his suitcase and laid down on the bed. Hands under his head, he stared at the ceiling reflecting on recent events.

They made little progress in their investigation and Kurapika had run out of leads, so it was probably going to be a boring week. Killua sighed; the only thing to look forward to was when Milluki would decrypt the data from the hunter website, but that was at least a couple of weeks away.

His mind drifted to the most recent spars with his dad and his grandfather. To be able to score a hit on his dad was a sign of progress, but at the same time, if his dad ever fought with his full power it wouldn't have happened at all. _"You need to train your power more,"_ his grandfather had said, and it echoed in his head, nagging at him. It was spot-on advice; ever since Gon had opened the sixth gate of his house (when he was still on the fifth), Killua had known that he was falling behind in terms of power. He had ignored that feeling, compensating with his extreme speed and precision instead, but fighting his dad was a reminder of how strong people could be and how much he needed to catch up.

_Maybe I can go find Gon and train with him,_ Killua thought, yawning. Gon was head of the current hunter exam, and judging from his last message, he should be taking care of the final exam right about now. Killua had flashbacks of his first hunter exam... during the last test, _his hand mercilessly pulling out the heart of his opponent..._ he shook those thoughts out of his head. _Yeah, it would be fun to train with Gon again,_ Killua thought as he drifted off into sleep.

* * *

"Killua! You're finally home!" Meri shouted, waking a groggy Killua from deep sleep. Killua shot up on his bed, his eyes dull and his mouth in a grumpy frown. He turned his head towards the door and saw Meri, cheerful as ever.

_It had been a while since I slept that soundly... my dad would have killed me if he caught me like that,_ Killua thought, and then pulled himself out of bed. "Meri, go away," he mumbled, clutching his head.

Meri pouted. "It's been a week since I've seen you and that's the greeting I get? You didn't even tell me you were going somewhere."

"I told Kurapika - nevermind," Killua said with a sigh. With a concerted effort he got up and walked over to the doorway until he was standing in front of her. He put his hand on the door frame and looked her in the eye, and she looked up back at him.

_*Pat, pat.*_ "It's good to see you again Meri," Killua said while he patted her on the head.

Meri swatted his hand away. "Ugh, stop patronizing me," she groaned. "Why do I even bother?"

Just then Kurapika came stumbling through the hallway carrying shopping bags all the way up each arm. His eyes were swirling and he dragged his feet as if he had a long, long day.

"Welcome home Killua," he said as he collapsed onto the floor.

Killua looked at the scene; shopping bags lined the hallway and in the middle lay Kurapika, limbs sprawled everywhere, breathing out sighs of relief. He looked as if he had been to hell and back.

Killua pointed at the shopping bags with a quizzical look, as if to ask, _"these yours?"_ Kurapika pointed at Meri.

"Family bonding time?" Killua asked Kurapika.

Kurapika lifted up his head weakly at Killua. "Working on it," Kurapika replied, letting his head fall back to the ground.

* * *

"Families are supposed to be... you know, like a family," Meri started, stabbing at her cake with a fork. The three of them had recovered and were now sitting down at the dining table enjoying an afternoon of snacks and sweets.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Killua asked pointedly.

"You know... like they're supposed to have family times, and eat together, and, well, do family things, I guess," Meri replied, a little hesitantly. "Come on, Killua," she snapped at him, "you know I grew up as an orphan!"

There was silence from both Killua and Kurapika. _My family isn't exactly the most normal family,_ Killua thought. Kurapika looked down at his slice of cake. _Revenge and hatred were my family,_ he thought sullenly.

"Well, like, they go around telling each other what happened this week," Meri continued, ignoring the silence. "So, Killua, what happened this week?"

"Oh, I'm family now?" Killua replied. "Well let's see..." _Well I hacked a professor, then hacked the hunter organization, almost got caught and got beat up by my dad and grandpa who happen to be assassins._ "Uhm... my week was pretty normal, I guess. I went and visited my family. We... my brother and I... played... on the computer together." Killua managed to mumble out.

Silence again pervaded the room. Killua looked at Kurapika with eyes that desperately asked for a bailout.

Kurapika stuttered. "Well... uhm... I did research."

Meri and Killua both looked at him with annoyance.

"Ugh, it is so hard to be family with you two!" Meri shouted in frustration, and took a huge bite of cake, sucking on the fork sullenly.

"Who said I was family with you?" Killua shot back. "And besides, being a family is not easy," Killua replied. He was stirring his cup of coffee, peering into its dark amber sheen. "My family has lots of issues and it's a pain to deal with them." _Like, locking the youngest one in a vault, teaching everyone to kill at a young age, and undergoing intense training periods of torture..._

"For family relationships you have to work at it, you know?" Killua said and looked up at her. She was still pouting, shoulders tucked in and back hunched with the fork in her mouth.

After a bit of silence, Meri pulled the fork out of her mouth and stabbed at the cake again. "My week was pretty normal. I was reminded of Kurapika during history class because we talked about prominent business families and the Nostrade family was brought up. I remember you said you used to work for them."

Kurapika nodded. "I was a bodyguard for the daughter, Neon."

"She must have been something else, right?" Meri asked.

Kurapika paused. Those memories lay behind emotions that were locked away. He recalled a soft flute, a vivid red tinge, hunting and being hunted. He remembered shopping, board games, auctions, and battles with lives on the line. But the impression that stood out from Neon was of her indifference to it all, of everyone around her bearing the full burden of the outside world and sheltering her from it.

"She was alone in her own world," Kurapika said simply.

Meri paused a moment, the fork right under her mouth, before taking another bite.

"That family is no longer prominent anymore, huh," she commented.

"They fell into ruin after the Yorkshin auction," Kurapika replied. After Neon had lost her prophecy ability, their clients lost faith in them and their businesses dried up. "It is the way things are in that society. Families rise and fall. They are still relatively rich compared to everyday people, even if most of their wealth is gone."

"And at the very least they are still alive," Killua said. He meant it, too; prominent families who fell often became a target of assassinations for no other reason than to pile misfortune on them. It was a cruel world.

"Yes," Kurapika agreed. "As long as they are alive and make the most of what they have." He gestured, touching his two shoulders while looking up and closing his eyes. It was a tradition from the Kurta clan that gave thanks to the divine, and although he hated superstitions, he tried is best to carry on the clan's heritage.

Meri ate the last of her chocolate cake and leaned back in her chair. "Well at least Killua's back, so you guys can continue on your research that you're doing."

Meri was about to say something more but glanced over at Kurapika and saw his face deep in thought. He looked lost, the face he often had when he was thinking about the past, wandering the memories of unspeakable things that he guarded from her like a father would to a child. She paused, looking into his eyes for clues.

Meri knew nothing about the past. All that she knew of the Kurta clan was through Kurapika, what he did and what he said, but mostly through what he left unsaid.

It was in unsaid moments like this one that Meri would seem mature beyond her years. Her expression softened as she lowered her head and looked away. She wouldn't asked about the past; she never did. Instead, she gently maneuvered around the locked years behind those dark brown eyes, letting the past stay dead. She would patiently wait until the day he chose to bring it to back to life, if that day ever came.

Meri stood up and stretched. "Ahhhh that cake was good."

"Mmhmm," Killua nodded, agreeing. "Kurapika why don't we have another slice before we get working again?" he said with a cat-like smirk on his face.

It turned out to be a good family time after all - they ended up sticking around the rest of the afternoon and having thirds together.


	7. Chapter 7

Gon was meditating by hanging upside-down from a tree when he heard his phone ring. Without opening his eyes, in one smooth motion he swiped his phone from his pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Yo Gon, it's Killua."

"Killua!" Gon's voice had matured and gotten deeper but it still held that cheerful quality that hinted at the immeasurable optimism behind Gon's disposition.

"How's the hunter exam going?" Killua asked.

"This year has some pretty powerful people. The final exam is in two days, and it's going to be in reverse elimination format." Gon said it with a decisive and proud tone.

"You know Gon, just because your hunter exam was reverse elimination doesn't mean that you have to make all last exams that way," Killua said, annoyed, amused and resigned to Gon's whim all at once.

"No, it's gotta be that way. That's the way Netero had it, and that's the way I'm doing it," Gon replied. "This year the battles are going to be very exciting! You should come and watch Killua."

"Actually, I called to see if I could come and train with you, but I can come a bit early. Kurapika is really booorrringgg."

"Sure, come over and train with me. I'm working on my leg strength now! The Chairman said that hanging from trees was a great way to develop control in your lower body." Gon was swinging from side to side, contorting his body in all sorts of ways.

Killua scoffed over the phone. "The Chairman says things just to get you to do stuff that she wants."

"Killua, that's not true, she gave me lots of good advice on how to get stronger. She said I needed to learn different combat styles - "

" - And that's how she got you to be in charge of the hunter exam." She totally has you in her bag, thought Killua. But at the same time, Killua agreed that Gon had hit a wall on his physical training, and seeing different types of combat was what he needed the most to improve.

"Ok, Gon, I'll fly to the Strathian continent in time to watch the last exam, and then we can train together some. I need to work on my power."

"Alright Killua! Oh, the Chairman just gave me some tips on how to train my power... something about punching sand dunes to flatten them! Fuh-pah!"

"Hai, hai," Killua said with resignation. "Ok Gon, I'll see you soon. Ja Ne."

"See you soon Killua," Gon said as he hung up.

"Killua's coming! Yoshaa!" He shouted in the forest, and forming his hand into a blade, he let out a Jan-Ken-Chi that cut down a dozen trees, making a ruckus in the forest below.

"Woops," Gon said to no one in particular. He closed his eyes again. Back to training, he said to himself as he resumed his meditative upside-down position.

* * *

Kurapika looked down at his phone; his contacts list stared back at him, and his gazed was fixed on a particular name with his hand hesitating over that section of the screen.

"Yo Gon, it's Killua." Killua was on the phone himself, talking to Gon. They were both in the study, Kurapika behind the desk and Killua lounging on the couch, and Kurapika admitted that he was out of leads and had nothing for Killua to do. Killua wasn't bothered; "I'll go visit Gon then," he replied.

That was a relief, thought Kurapika. He fidgeted at his desk and tried not to show any anxiety. Truthfully there was one more lead that he could try, but he didn't want Killua around for it; he would never agree to it.

"Hai, Hai, I'll see you soon Gon," Killua said, hanging up. Kurapika looked up at Killua, who got up from the couch. Killua looked really happy.

"Alright, I'm going to train with Gon for a while. Call me if you need me," Killua said. He got to the door, then turned around. "Oh, and tell Meri this time, will you?"

Kurapika nodded and Killua darted to his room. He looked at his phone again, staring at the name. He then typed a message and sent it quickly, putting the phone back in his pocket. He turned back to the computer but his mind was elsewhere as he clicked, mechanically, on folders and files, opening and closing them repeatedly in the semblance of work.

* * *

A large black coat with a cross on the back swayed slightly and then buzzed in one of the front pockets. It's owner, Kuroro, was sitting on a box in one of the Phantom Troupe's bases, his knees elevated and hands holding up his head. He noticed the phone vibrating and pulled it out.

From: Red Eyes  
To: Kuroro

We need to talk. 4pm tmr

Kuroro knew who it was and where they would meet. He had met there when they made both their deals, one for his life and the other for his nen. He wondered what kind of deal this meeting would hold.

He put his phone down and lifted up his head to look at the stars. It was a dark night and the stars twinkled brighter than ever. Kuroro smiled.

* * *

Sorry this week is a little short! I am a little busy IRL. I hate to have to give you two weeks of no plot, but think of this week as introducing the second arc which I think is going to be awesome. It kind of has the same flavor as the Yorkshin Auction arc.

I also blame my OCs... they're coming out as one dimensional and I keep having to rewrite them! Such a pain, you guys...

Thanks again for the reviews!


	8. Chapter 8

Just a FYI - I changed the location of the hunter exam to a new place. The author doesn't give you many locations to work with; two out of the six continents are known, and very few countries are described... which means I have to come up with my own settings! Which means... more work for me! T_T

Enjoy!

* * *

The Strathian Continent, south of the Azian continent, is one of the lesser developed continents in the world, set back by generations of civil war between its major countries, poor resources and monster-filled regions. The coast from the top left starts out as mountains, but gives way southward to a vast desert. There is a dense area of forest and jungle starting from the east of the continent turning into desert in the center, and the southern tip of the continent is icy tundra which is barely habitable.

The two countries that control most of the continent are loose alliances of various city states and tribal territories. Controlling the west side of the continent is the Natalic Provincial Union, and controlling the east is the Republic of Prakin. Separating the two is a stretch of dunes in the midst of the desert filled with monsters and bandits. Because of the difficulties of trade and communication across the desert, the two countries have tense relations.

Part of the 293rd hunter exam was set in the Narobi Dunes in the middle of the Strathian continent, a swath of the desert that is home to gigantic snakes and lizards and burrowed sand worms that could swallow whole companies of people. It is known for its extreme weather changes; after flash floods, the Narobi Dunes would bloom and many rare species of flora from all over the world would appear, making it a treasure trove for botanical hunters.

South of the Narobi Dunes is the city of West Prakin, which straddles the desert and the forest regions of the Strathian continent. It is surrounded by high walls but within the city you could make out the line at which the desert ended and the forest began. The two ecosystems within the city create two economies - hunting and logging in the districts closer to the forests, and mining and oil drilling in the districts closer to the desert.

The final exam was taking place in a forest clearing just outside the city's borders. Killua flew into the Prakin Airport and was met by Satotz, who had already finished judging his part of the exam. Satotz walked as smoothly as ever, his mouth hidden under his curled moustache as he greeted Killua, leading him out of the airport and onto a dirt road to get into a specially commissioned jeep.

"Killua kun. You've grown since the last time I saw you," Satotz said, his deep voice both comforting and approving. "Gon kun is excited to have you come, and asked that I escort you to the final exam."

They drove down the dirt road towards the forest to a clearing on the outskirts of the city, and Killua arrived right as the exam started. Gon stood on a makeshift platform explaining the rules to the hunter candidates below. The judges of the Hunter Exam were standing on the sideline, some of them familiar faces, some new. Next to Gon, a Kiriko judge stood in his monster form, sniffing the air as Killua walked in the clearing.

Gon was explaining the reverse elimination tournament rules, which were exactly the same as his first hunter exam. There were six persons left in the exam; five of them would pass and one would fail. The participants would be paired up to have one on one battles, and the goal was to make your opponent give up, which means that you passed the hunter exam and your opponent advances to the next round. If you kill your opponent, you fail, everyone else passes, and the exam ends. The last person left in the bracket would fail and have to take the exam again next year.

Killua looked at the contestants who were scattered around the grassy field next to the stage. Gon was right - some of these would be exciting matches. He noticed a man around his age wearing a suit and carrying a long katana. His hair was slicked back and he had eyes as sharp as daggers. He looked like a young yakuza heir. He was standing next to an old man who looked to be his butler - he was also wearing a suit and was standing straight and attentive.

A young girl also caught his attention. She couldn't be more than 15, but she must have been very skilled to make it this far. She had short, dark hair and was dressed in loose karate-gi, but Killua noticed that she held her body extremely still and probably had extensive combat training.

Gon was reading out the seeding now, and the contestants all fixed their eyes on Gon, not daring to look at their opponents. They had researched each other already and it was no use sizing up each other now.

The fights began to go underway, and in the first round the young girl was paired up with a boy with spiky hair. As soon as the match started, the girl disappeared and appeared behind him, stabbing his arms and legs before he could even react. He dropped face down onto the ground.

He tried to get up but found that he couldn't. The look of horror at being so outclassed was evident on his face.

The girl was confidently looking around expecting the match to end when she realized exactly what the rules implied. The look on her face said _I'm such an idiot_, as she realized that the battle had just begun.

Killua stood impassively on the sidelines. Knowing Gon, he must have paired the one with the highest stubbornness with the one with the most combat ability in tribute to Netero. It turned out exactly as he imagined.

"I'm never going to give up! Just kill me!" The boy shouted, struggling on the ground to get to his feet.

The girl kicked him down. "You've no chance to win. Give up already," she said.

"NEVER!"

She ran to him and kicked him in his stomach. "Give-" ***kick*** "Up!" ***kick***.

He coughed up blood, then looked up at her face in defiance. He spat at her, which she dodged.

She got very, very angry, and no longer spoke to him. Instead, she put him in a series of holds and positions, each more torturous than the last, and each time he would scream in agony, the echo of it sounding across the clearing.

The atmosphere grew heavy as the clearing turned against her. She knew it, too.

"One last time," she panted heavily, bending his arm back at an angle that looked sickening. "If you don't give up, you'll lose your right arm."

The man was silent; he had fallen unconscious with the pain. She bit back tears. _What a stupid exam!_

Standing up, the girl threw the arm down, and stomped off to the sidelines. "I give up," she said disgustedly. No one dared make eye contact with her as she found a spot on the grass and sat down.

* * *

In the next round, the young yakuza was paired with his butler. He had a cocky grin on his face as he looked at his opponent.

"And... start!" Gon said, swinging his hand down.

The young man smiled and closed his eyes. Nothing else happened. His smiled turned into a frustrated grimace the longer the silence persisted.

"Hey Ursa!" the young man shouted over to his butler. "Aren't you supposed to just give up and let me win? Isn't that why we asked to be paired?"

"That's your reason, yes," the butler replied.

"Then aren't you going to give up?"

"No."

There was an awkward silence in the room. The young man's face fell. "What's going on? What are you doing? Aren't you my servant?"

"I'm hardly appreciating these rhetorical questions, Master."

"Don't you do what I tell you to do?"

"That's what servants do, yes."

"Then I order you to give up!"

There was silence. It lasted for a good minute before the young man burst.

"Why aren't you following my orders?!" he shouted.

"My allegiance is first to your late father, and his last order was to make sure you live. To be faithful to him, I requested to be paired against you to stop you from passing this exam," the butler stated.

The young man's face fell. "This -this is treason of the highest order! You're fired! You're more than fired, you're- you're... I hate you! Just die!"

"Oh grow some sense, will you?" the butler replied, sighing. "I allowed you to take the hunter exam because I thought you were over with the past. It pains me to see that you're still thinking about revenge."

"But I can't take part in the spider hunt unless I become a hunter!" The young man replied, shocked at what was happening. Tears were in his eyes. "I thought you were with me, how can you do this to me?"

The butler sighed and shook his head. "Please don't do anything rash in public young Master."

"We were doing so well, nobody could stand up to us in the exam, too! We can do it! We can kill the spiders, I know it!" The young man was in hysterics.

"You're going nowhere but home. Now give up and move on. That is your late father's wish, is it not?"

"They took my life from me and I'm going to kill them for it! No one can stop me, not even you!"

"Well obviously that's wrong, you're still alive," the butler cut in sarcastically. "Now let's go home. Give up nice and easy now," he said, walking towards him.

The young man backed up. "Never!" He drew his katana and held it shakily. "Don't take any more steps!"

The butler ignored him, continuing his advance. The young man backed up more, stumbling onto the ground. "Don't come over here! I mean it!"

***Step*.** "Drop your sword, it's useless against me." ***Step*...**

"Any closer and I'll kill myself!" The young man flipped the katana around and pressed the sharp blade against his own neck.

The butler stopped.

He held it there too hard and blood started pouring down from his neck.

"Give up or I'm going to do it!" The young man shouted. "3!"

The butler tensed.

"2!" The young man continued, his voice a gurgle. He closed his eyes.

At that instant, the butler dashed next to him, grabbed the sword with his bare hand and yanked it away. At the same time, he hit the young man in the temple, knocking him out cold.

"You're a rash boy, just like your father," the butler said as he caught the boy with his bloodied hand. He inspected the wound - the sword cut, intentionally or not, was deep enough to be fatal given enough time.

"I give up. We need medical attention immediately on this young man - he cut himself deeply enough that he could bleed to death." He looked around as no one moved.

"NOW."

The medical staff rushed over and grabbed the boy, ushering them both away.

* * *

The final round of the first stage was between a spear wielder and a wrestler with metal knuckles. They were evenly matched until the wrestler baited a thrust and stepped into his guard. He quickly disarmed him of his spear and put him in a submission hold, and the spear wielder conceded, recognizing that he was at his opponent's mercy.

Three contestants were left in the second stage and the young girl ended up with the bye, making the first match with the butler and the spear wielder. The relief on the spear wielder's face was obvious; he did NOT want to have to fight the little girl.

It was a little too soon to be relieved however.

"And... start!" Gon yelled, and immediately the butler closed the gap into close combat before anyone could blink. The spear wielder tried a desperate maneuver, using the butt of the spear to try to disengage, but he was deftly countered. The butler let loose on him, punching him from every direction until finally he kicked his chest, sending him soaring into the air. He tumbled on the ground and ended up on his back, staring at the sky.

The butler walked over to him and stood over his head, looking down at him.

"As someone who has been around the yakuza for over 40 years, I can tell you that the young girl is an amateur when it comes to torture. I can do much better, and I don't have a soft heart," the butler said as a matter of fact, cracking his knuckles.

Needless to say, his opponent surrendered immediately.

The final match between the girl and the spear wielder ended quickly after the girl went in and out of his guard three times, each time lightly touching a pressure point just to show him the difference in skill. Finally, he made a wild thrust in desperation, and instead of dodging, the girl jumped, landed on the spear, ran up it and vaulted over his head, touching his back in six places. He turned around and faced her, all hope in his face vanished.

"I - I - I give up," he said biting those words back with tears. _He had come so close!_

And thus, the 293rd hunter exam ended.

* * *

The one stipulation Gon put in when he took charge of the hunter exam was that he would not be responsible for the license award ceremony. He had been unconscious during his own ceremony and had slept through the lecture on the hunter license... so he didn't really know what went on in those things anyways.

"He's just like a little Ging," the chairman muttered to herself, agreeing to the demand.

So after the exam, Gon met up with Killua and they went out exploring. They raced through the desert, across sand dunes and over hills, Gon stopping every so often to tell a story or point out something. They reached a particular section of the desert that had rolling sand dunes as far as the eye could see.

"The chairman said that we could use this area for training," Gon said.

"Cool," Killua replied, looking around. The area was filled with dunes in every direction, severely limiting the view of the surrounding desert, but even with nen Killua couldn't detect any monsters or creatures nearby.

He swiveled around, taking his surroundings in, before looking back at Gon. "No monsters to fight or anything?"

Gon shook his head. "Nothing here at all. She said to flatten this place."

Killua nodded, then did a double take. Some of these dunes were 500 feet tall and miles long. "Wait, what? Come on, does she expect us to punch these dunes into oblivion?"

Gon shrugged, and then released his nen. He stood still, gathering nen into his fist, the wind flaring around him.

_Gon's really gonna try it,_ Killua thought, at the same time awestruck by how much aura Gon released. _Maybe I should back away a little bit..._

It was too late; Gon jumped in the air at the nearest hill, a sand dune 15 feet tall.

"Hiiiiyyyyaaaaahh!" He shouted, slamming his nen filled fist into the dune's peak.

It looked like a bomb had gone off - sand was blasted everywhere from where Gon had hit the dune. Killua turned his head and shielded his eyes, waiting for the sand to pass. When he looked back Gon was standing in a crater about 20 feet wide and 5 feet deep. The remnants of the dune still bordered him on both sides, but they were already slowly draining their sand into the crater.

Gon stood up in the crater. "Killua! How was that?" He turned around to look back at his friend, but Killua was nowhere to be seen.

"Killua?" Gon called out at the desert.

All of a sudden, both sides of the dune exploded and sand flew into the crater, covering Gon. When the sand cleared, two Killuas could be seen, their fists to the ground on either side of the dune. He had punched the rest of the sand dune into the crater.

"Gon, tell me the next time you want to blast sand everywhere," Killua said, dispelling his dark clone and spitting sand out of his mouth.

Gon was waist deep in sand and grinning madly. He reached his right hand to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. "Ahha... I guess I deserved that," he said, sticking out his tongue before also spitting sand out of his mouth.

They tried some more techniques for flattening sand dunes, but decided that a nice solid punch was the best. They also discovered why so many people in the West Prakin wore goggles and a bandanna. They weren't just a fashion statement; sand constantly got in their eyes and mouth and made life taste miserable.

They headed home at the end of the day with sand in everything - boots, hair, and clothes. It felt good to be training again.

* * *

It was dusk by the time they got back from the desert. The hunter license ceremony had ended in the afternoon, and Gon was called in by Chairman Cheadle to review the exam, leaving Killua by himself for the night. He arrived at the clearing which was now empty and shook sand out of his hair and clothes. He laid down in the tall grass, hands under his head, his body aching from the workout. _I'm not as young as I used to be,_ he thought to himself, wincing a little bit from soreness. His knuckles were throbbing from the impact against the sand, even with a protective coat of nen.

The dunes were the perfect place to train power. It was actually quite difficult to find a place where you could release destructive force without fear of disrupting habitats or human activity, but the desert provided just that. The different sizes of the dunes meant that you could track your progress, working from the short dunes to the taller ones, and there were thousands of square miles of dunes to work with - almost an endless supply. The weather would get too hot in a couple of months, but until then they could train non stop, just like old times. Osu!

His thoughts were interrupted by visitors entering the clearing. As they walked closer to where Killua was laying, he overheard the voices of two men in a heated, hushed whisper.

"I'm going to apply. You can't stop me."

"Master, I beg you to have some sense. You are the heir of the Zanbuchi clan and cannot afford to die - "

"We cannot let them go! They owe us for what they did - what yakuza doesn't collect on their debts?"

"Yakuza make other people do the collecting."

"I'll take care of the spiders myself, and then we'll be known as the strongest clan! Everyone will bow to us!"

"Stop dreaming kid." Killua's voice rang out, and the two of looked in Killua's direction, startled. Killua got up into a sitting position.

"You? Defeat the spiders? You're 1000 years too early," Killua said, derision and mockery in his tone.

"Oh," the young man said, stepping forward. "You've got a lot of nerve talking to me like that. I'm Sawada Zanbuchi, heir of the Zanbuchi clan."

The butler, sensing danger, desperately tried to hold him back, but he shook off his grip. "No one is going to stop me from killing the spiders."

Killua guffawed. "You? Kill the Phantom Troupe? You haven't even passed the real hunter exam yet."

Sawada grinned. "Oh, I know about the hidden hunter exam, and I already passed." His body glowed with nen. He grabbed the hilt on his belt and went into a quick draw stance, leaning forward with his head up. "If you have a gripe to pick with me, I'll take you on any time."

The butler stepped in, very worried. "Master, please stop this - " he managed to say before he received a swift chop to the neck and crumpled.

Killua, one hand in his pocket and the other like a blade, appeared instantly behind the two of them before they had time to react. He turned to face the young man, who had even not even turned around yet.

The young man heard his butler crumple to the floor. "Ursa, what ha-" he said as he turned and saw Killua standing over his butler, grinning evilly.

"In that case, I can take you seriously," Killua said, the smile on his face becoming gleeful. "You're 10,000 years too early to take on me!"

The young man drew his sword. "What do you know!" he shouted at Killua, backing up slowly. Suddenly, Killua disappeared from sight again.

Sawada looked around. Killua was nowhere to be seen. He tried to take a step, any step, but his mind was screaming to him that it might be his last.

"I fought against the spiders once, five years ago," Killua said, his voice seemingly coming from all directions at once.

Killua filled Sawada's mind with visions of death, a hand piercing through his back, his sword arm being cut off, his head severed and on the ground in a silent scream. Sawada began to sweat and back up even more, looking around frantically.

"Maybe now I can beat them, but I wouldn't want to test my luck. You, on the other hand, would be swatted like a fly."

Sawada broke down mentally, swinging blindly in the darkness. "I hate you! I hate the spiders! I'll kill you, I will! I'll kill every one of you that tries to stop me!"

A shadow moved at his left; Sawada blindly swung at it and connected. "Hah!" Sawada cried, " I got you-" and then he stopped.

Ursa, his butler, crumpled once again to the ground, blood spewing out of his side. Sawada froze; the katana dropped from his grip as blood sprayed out over the clearing.

Killua laughed. The laugh echoed through the clearing, coming from all directions at once.

Sawada cried out in a desperate wail and then a backhand chop to his neck brought him into darkness and silence.

* * *

_That was more trouble than it was worth,_ Killua thought to himself as Sawada fell to the ground. He came out of rhythm echo and dispelled the illusion in Sawada's mind - no butlers were harmed in the making of the scene._ Hopefully that will knock some sense into the kid,_ Killua thought as he checked both bodies to make sure they still had a pulse.

He stood up to leave when a young female voice echoed in the clearing.

"What do you mean, the hidden hunter exam?"

Killua looked up and sure enough, the girl in the karate-gi was standing in front of him. _This little girl had snuck up on him! And she didn't know about nen! What was she, a wild animal like Gon?_

"I know who you are," the girl continued. "You're Killua Zoldeck."

At this, Killua tensed. Those who knew him usually wanted only one thing - revenge. He got ready to run.

"Please!" the girl cried out. "Teach me how to be a hunter!" She bowed to the ground.

Killua just stared. _This is just too much for one day..._

He wanted to be polite; he really did. But sometimes life comes at you too fast and you have no strength left for pleasantries.

"Tch, it's too troublesome," he said, and in the next instant he disappeared into the night.

* * *

Woohoo, a longish chapter! Thanks for the encouragements everyone. Truth be told, I wanted to leave it on a cliff hanger with Kurapika and Kuroro... but I'm happy with how the chapter turned out, so I'll spare you all.

See you next week!


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks everyone for the encouraging reviews!

* * *

_* Flashback - two years ago at the Yorkshin Private Airport *_

It was a bright night with the full moon out. Kurapika, hidden behind a hangar wall, looked onto the empty landing pad. He had others monitoring the airport to make sure that Kuroro came alone. Sure enough, exactly on time, a lone figure walked into the center of the landing pad and stopped. He wore a black cloak with a cross on its back. After checking with his team that it was indeed Kuroro and that no one else was nearby, Kurapika stood up, emerged from the shadows, and walked towards him, a piece of paper in his hand.

Kuroro put his hands in his pocket and turned as Kurapika came up to meet him. With his nen still bound, he wasn't a threat, but there was never a feeling that he was at your mercy either. Instead, Kurapika always felt pressured by him. As far as Kurapika could tell, there was nothing that Kuroro valued, nothing that could be used against him. Dealing with him was like dealing with the devil.

_But he is not unreadable,_ Kurapika said to himself, reaffirming each step. _He is logical above all else - I can work with that._

"I never expected for you to call me out here," Kuroro said simply.

"Let me get straight to the point," Kurapika said, stopping at arm's distance from Kuroro and holding out the piece of paper. "I want to make a deal with you."

Kuroro glanced at the paper and Kurapika thought he saw the slightest bit of surprise light up in his eyes. It quickly returned to a glassy stare as he took the paper to read it.

There was a minute of silence as Kuroro read the document. Kurapika looked away, breathing deeply to calm himself. In his mind, dozens of scarlet eyes were staring at him, screaming to him, crying out for vengeance. Yet the persons behind the eyes, they too cried out, not for vengeance of their death, but for Kurapika to live.

_Don't live for vengeance,_ his clansmen had said to him, one by one. When Kurapika went into their memoryscape, he could only watch the last battle where all his clansmen were killed. But each one of them would steer away from the scene of their death and point out the hidden details of their life - the story behind a piece of pottery that was smashed, a first kiss here and a prank there in the middle of intense battle, the proud achievements of their kids who were crying in a corner and ruthlessly slaughtered. They stared at death and chose to see their own life.

That was bravery and it was the real legacy of the Kurta clan.

Kuroro looked up and flipped the paper over in his hand. "What do I get in return for agreeing to do these things?" he asked.

Kurapika lifted up his right hand and pointed at Kuroro. The sound of clinking chains grew as his nen chains materialized. _Thank you, clansmen,_ he whispered to himself. He looked at Kuroro with bright scarlet eyes, eyes that radiated with brilliance.

"You get to wear my chains," Kurapika said.

* * *

That was two years ago and they hadn't met since. Kurapika preferred to bury those memories and avoid anything related to the Phantom Troupe; he had forgiven them but the wounds were still there. Seeing a spider would still evoke those intense emotions and unsettle him for the rest of the day.

If it wasn't for their connection with the organization R, he would have never contacted them again. But Kurapika had to settle it once and for all; in order for there to be closure, he had to find them.

The sun was overhead when Kurapika arrived at the small airport, past the empty hangars and cargo bays and onto the runway to wait. A blimp had just set out, but other than that there was nothing else scheduled for the day. He looked at his watch - 3:45pm. That gave him 15 minutes until Kuroro would arrive.

The airport was a relatively quiet one that held little traffic except for the occasional blimp or personal aircraft flight over the city. It held little economic significance to Yorkshin City - more accurately, it held little significance at all. To most people, it would be a mere passing memory, easily forgotten, like sitting in a taxi or stopping at a train station.

But this airport was the location of Kurapika's most heart pumping memories and defining moments of his life.

As he looked around, everything seemed intimately familiar - the red blinking lights in the distance, a specific crack on the concrete that ran and split the white paint down the middle, a silhouette of three long buildings along the horizon. He remembered the last time he came here; the dim night sky casting shadows everywhere and the cold wind that blew on his face, flapping the piece of paper that held the terms of the deal that would free him from the spiders once and for all.

He looked at his watch; 3:50pm. He walked towards the center of the landing pad in anticipation. His own voice, spoken in the past, echoed in his mind -

_"All the terms laid out in the deal will become the judgment chains in your heart. These restrictions will become the source of the chain's power. The power of the chain that binds nen is fueled by your desire and your willingness to die for your desire - "_

He stopped in the middle of the pad and looked around. Everything was still and silent.

_"To make the transfer of the chains, first I'll bind you in a judgment chain that will kill you if the transfer doesn't finish within the next hour. Then I'll release your nen and allow you to summon the book - "_

3:54pm. Kurapika wondered what would have happened if Kuroro had found a nen remover within those 3 years. Would he come and exact vengeance? Would Killua and Gon be a target? Would he have found Meri? These questions had come up in his head over and over haunting him, and he was thankful that he wouldn't have to find out.

_"If you agree to these terms, then I'll let you have my ability in return for the protection of my friends."_

_There was silence for a moment, Kuroro's face emotionless and passive. Then he spoke._

_"I'll accept the terms," Kuroro said._

Some movement in the distance prompted Kurapika to use gyo; a man with a black flowing cloak walked towards the landing pad. 3:57pm. He was right on time.

At 4:00pm exactly, Kuroro stopped 10 feet away from Kurapika, his hands in his pocket with an expectant look.

"I'm going to cut straight to the point," Kurapika said. "What can you tell me about the organization that hired you to kill the Kurta clan? You called them 'R'. Did you know what that stood for?"

Silence ensued. Kurapika waited patiently until Kuroro lifted his head and spoke.

"Is that why you called me out here? I'm leaving," Kuroro said, turning to go.

In a flash, Kurapika circled around Kuroro and once again was face to face with him.

"Consider this as the final part of the last deal," Kurapika said, eyes locked onto Kuroro's face, looking for slight twitch, a reaction, anything.

Kuroro was emotionless and gave away nothing. Kurapika was beginning to think that actually he felt nothing, so his emotionless face gave away everything.

Then his nen flared, and a book with a hand print appeared in his right hand. It flipped open at the portrait of Kurapika, and chains appeared on his left hand. His right eye began to glow a vibrant red.

"I've gotten very good with your hatsu, just to let you know. It is one of the most powerful ones in my book. I haven't ever thanked you for it yet." He did a mock bow. "Do you know how much blood is on these chains?" Kuroro asked.

Kurapika tensed. Seeing the chains flooded him with memories. He remembered laying in the darkness with the chains wrapped around his body, feeling their weight and the cold metal as he tried to fall asleep. Part of him longed for the chains like it was an old close friend.

He snapped out of it. Kuroro was merely trying to intimidate him, and he wouldn't let that happen. "If you won't answer the question, then I'm going to force you to."

Kuroro lifted up his hand to the sky. The chains clinked deliciously. "Have you developed a new hatsu yet?" He asked, gazing at the chains that were dangling from his hand. "If you did, I can help you test it out. I've found a way to bypass the judgment rules; we can have a little spar right here."

Kurapika crossed his arms and waited. Finally Kuroro put his hand down, the smile on his face turning into a slight frown.

"You're no fun anymore," he said flatly. "Alright, I'll tell you what I know," he said with a sigh. "We received the job when we were in Meteor City by request. The requester never came in person but he always sent a messenger. It was a different person every time."

Kurapika waited.

"He paid us 500 million jenny per pair of scarlet eyes, and we found 15 of them," Kuroro said.

Kurapika tapped his hand on his shoulder.

"We dropped them off at a typical drop off site in Meteor City - we never saw him. He paid us by depositing it directly into our bank accounts - we didn't even give him an account number."

"Is that all?" Kurapika asked.

"I did talk to him once, over the phone, but the number was hidden and his voice was altered. That's all. I don't know any more about who the person is." Kuroro shrugged sheepishly. "It was at least 10 years ago. Usually my memory isn't that good," Kuroro said.

Kurapika grabbed at midair, and suddenly in his hand appeared a chain. It fed into Kuroro's heart, a reserve judgment chain in case he needed to force Kuroro to do something.

Kurapika considered a moment. If Kuroro was lying then he would pull out the reserve judgment chain and use it against him. But most likely Kuroro didn't have any more information, and he was acting suspicious to try to get him to use up the last judgment chain.

Kurapika sighed. "Alright then," he said, letting go of the chain as he turned to leave.

Kuroro smiled as Kurapika walked away. Truthfully, he had some relevant information, but he didn't want to have the judgment chain used on him or else he would be forced to reveal it. The organization had recently paid him handsomely for a prophecy and wanted another one. To receive a prophecy you had to give your full name - so Kuroro knew who the organization's leader was.

_Thank you chain user,_ Kuroro thought to himself again as he also turned and walked out, heading the opposite way.

* * *

**THE DEAL:**

The following rules must be followed at all times. Failure to do so will result in immediate death:

1. You must never attempt to cause any kind of damage, directly or indirectly, to Kurapika, his friends, his kin, or any person he has stated to you.

2. You must immediately kill any Spider that attempts to cause damage to Kurapika, his friends, his kin, or any person he has stated for you not to hurt.

3. You must keep a channel of communication open with Kurapika for him to provide you with names and requests.

4. You must assist a request for protection from Kurapika and his kin.

5. You must allow Kurapika one judgment chain rule for future use.

These terms will become judgment chains in your heart, and these restrictions will become the source of the chain's power.

In return, the following will be given to Kuroro:

1. The use of nen.

2. The chain hatsu of Kurapika.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Reviews will be loved in equal or greater amounts than the love they contain (you get what I mean too). :)

See you next week!


	10. Chapter 10

Just FYI - I updated the last chapter with the deal that Kurapika makes with Kuroro. I think this makes it much more clear, and allows you to understand more of why Kurapika made that deal with him.

Enjoy!

* * *

Gon and Killua left the department store wearing huge backpacks on their backs, bandannas over their mouths and large tinted goggles. And huge smiles, too; they were training again, just the two of them like the good ol' days.

"Osu!" Gon shouted as they left. You could tell he was excited; he pulled the straps tight and buckled all the miscellaneous straps of the backpack, which was stuffed with camping gear and had water bottles hanging down each side. Killua's backpack was the same except that it was stuffed full of snacks.

"Alright, let's go!" Killua shouted, and instantly they began to run, full speed, towards the desert. They zoomed down the street and were almost out of the gate when they ran by Chairman Cheadle, who deftly grabbed both of them by their arms.

"Ah, Gon and Killua," she said as they both fell flat on their backs from the sudden stop. "I've been looking for you today."

She then took out a map the Strathian Continent. The desert area was clearly marked out, as well as the borders for each country.

"It's good to see that you took up my suggestion to train in the desert, but I wanted to make sure you don't cause trouble for the surrounding neighbors. Please train as much as you want within this area." She shaded a strip of desert with her finger; it formed a path between the West Prakin and Natalic Union. "It might take you a couple of months to clear it, anyways."

Killua got up and rubbed his back while looking at the map. He thought it a bit strange that she would request such a specific area; the whole desert was practically barren. But he shrugged it off and looked at the stretch of land she indicated.

"We'll be done with that within a month, Baba - OUCH," Killua said as he got smacked by the Chairman in the head.

"Don't call me an old lady, Killua," Cheadle said, ticked off.

Gon sighed as he saw a huge lump grow on Killua's head. _Killua never seems to learn,_ he thought.

* * *

They arrived at the desert shortly after noon with the sun directly overhead. Rolling dunes covered the desert as far as the eye could see.

"Gon why don't you work in that direction and I'll work over here," Killua said, pointing at two different dunes on the opposite sides of where they stood. They each seemed to be roughly the same size, rising about 30 feet into the air and about a thousand feet long.

Gon looked at the area Killua pointed at and nodded. "Osu!" he said, pumping his fist. He shed his backpack and tossed it onto the sand.

Killua did likewise. "Alright, let's see who can flatten theirs first!" He said as they both raced towards their dune, sand flying from where their footsteps landed.

As Killua reached the top of his dune he began to feel uneasy about his surroundings. He looked around, scanning for danger, but he couldn't find anything. _There doesn't seem to be anyone else here... should I use nen to scan the area?_

A blast from Gon's sand dune shook him out of his thoughts. _We're probably the most dangerous thing out here,_ Killua thought to himself as he activated his ren.

Killua knew that if he wanted to train power, he would have to give it his strongest shot every time. He breathed in slowly, concentrating on gathering as much aura as possible. After a minute of gathering aura, he focused the nen into one point on his fist, and then - **SLAMMMMM!** - he punched the ground as hard as he could.

The sand below him seemed to disintegrate as it flew in all directions. As the sand cleared, Killua stood in the midst of a large crater on the top of the sand dune. While he was impressed with himself, he was also slightly disappointed that he was still about 10 feet above ground level. He had hoped that he could clear 30 feet of sand in one punch with his current power level; now it seemed like a long ways off still.

_Yoshaa!_ Killua thought to himself as he moved to another spot on the ridge of the sand dune. _Let's see if I can do better than that._ He concentrated again, gathering nen to himself and focusing it on his fist.

**SLAMMMM!**

* * *

After about an hour, Killua was beginning to get the hang of it. The sand had a funny way of absorbing your force if you didn't hit it correctly, especially if you hit it head on with not enough strength. The best result, Killua found, was when you twisted your arm while punching; the sand blasted away in an even spiral from the point of contact.

He also realized why he felt so uneasy; the rolling dunes provided many places that an enemy could hide out in ambush. He spotted at least a dozen such places from his vantage point, and that was only within a few miles.

He had heard about the history of tension between the two countries on either side of the desert and he began to understand why - any attempts at traveling between the two by land would be easy pickings for bandits and other organized crime. A lack of travel between the two countries would reinforce the distrust of the unknown on the other side.

Killua looked at the large holes he had made in the sand dune already. He could see Gon on the other side of the hole, working down his own dune which had already considerably shrunk. Just having two sand dunes flattened made Killua feel much safer, as he could see much farther already.

_Wait, the chairman asked us to do this to all the way across the whole dessert... is she trying to get us to make a land route?_ Killua thought about it and pieces started clicking together. One of the hunter exams was getting rid of monsters in desert areas close to the city. Another was to dig wells in a part of the desert that was extremely arid. It would make sense if the Republic of Prakin paid the hunter organization to do these things for them.

_That crafty old hag,_ Killua thought to himself as he readied another punch.

* * *

By the end of the day, both Killua and Gon were drenched in sweat, but Killua looked the worse for wear. Boy, he was tired! His shoulders sagged, his breath was heavy, and he dragged his feet all the way home.

Gon also looked ragged but was just as cheerful and energetic as ever. He was an enhancer so his body held up better than Killua's, and his hatsu, Janken, was basically the same as what they were doing in their training. In contrast, Killua's combat style conserved his nen and minimized excess power so to use as much nen as possible and to constantly increase the nen amount was very tiring for him.

Killua almost regretted training so hard. Truthfully he should have stopped an hour sooner, but he couldn't let Gon beat him. Gon had finished the first dune by mid afternoon and was working on an even larger one, but it took Killua all afternoon to finish the first dune. _That was stupid of me to try to compete with Gon's strength,_ Killua thought. _Gon was already a monster at power; he has probably near double my strength, and he is not even at his peak yet._

They finally reached their hotel, and Killua wanted nothing more than to collapse onto a nice fluffy bed. The elevator seemed to take forever, and finally they arrived at the twelfth floor where they were staying. Killua fumbled with the keys, managed to get the door open, dropped all his equipment on the floor, and flopped onto the bed with a loud 'OOMPH'.

_Ah..._ Killua thought, as he finally let all his sore muscles in his back and neck relax. _It can only get better from here..._ He was about to close his eyes when a bit of movement next to his bed caught his attention.

He turned his head and ended up face to face with the young girl from the hunter exam. She had on a neutral expression, as if she was tired and bored of waiting for him all day. Killua blinked, twice, and then fell backwards off the bed, scrambling backwards on the floor until he hit the wall behind him.

"YOU!" He shouted at her, his ears turning red with anger. She was already half emerged from her hiding spot beneath his bed, and she yawned lazily as she dragged the rest of her body out from under the bed.

"Oh, Ema chan, welcome!" Gon said as he noticed her crawling out from underneath the bed. "Congratulations on passing the exam!"

"Oh, Gon san, Konbanwa. Can you help me to get Killua san to tell me how to pass the hidden exam?" she asked, standing up and dusting herself off.

"Oh, you know about that already?" Gon replied. "Ma... Killua isn't the best teacher - "

"She knows how to hide her aura and she doesn't even know about nen!" Killua exclaimed to Gon, pointing at her frantically. "What is she some kind of wild animal?"

"Ma, Ma, Killua, calm down. She's had a lot of your kind of training - "

"And she snuck up on me - " Killua interjected, his pride a little hurt. _This little girl? Catch me unaware, and twice too?_

Gon replied curtly - "That's cause she makes herself appear weak to you so you would block her out of your consciousness. It's her specialty; she did it a lot during the hunter exam."

Killua paused. Come to think of it, Gon was right. It wasn't that she had snuck up on him; rather, he had passed by her like she was a squirrel in a tree or a pigeon on a rooftop. She made herself appear totally harmless and to a hunter trained to spot danger, it was as if she wasn't there at all.

"Hmmphhh," Killua said, leaning back against the wall. "Well, you're way too much of a brat for me to teach you anything."

"Killua," Gon said, his tone pleading at whatever trace of compassion was left in Killua's heart. "She was raised an assassin like you and she wanted to escape that life and be a hunter."

"Gon, we don't even know how to awaken nen besides the way Wing san did it," Killua said. "It's dangerous and we've never done it before."

"I'll do it," Ema said with a serious, determined tone. "Please?"

Killua looked at Ema, her face full of determination, and then at Gon, who wore his heart on his face. It was completely obvious that Gon felt sorry for the girl and wanted Killua to help her. He sighed.

"Alright, Gon, we'll get Wing San to come over," Killua said with a tone of resignation. He took out his cellphone and dialed a number. Gon's face lit up.

"Hello, Wing san?" Killua said into the phone. "It's been a long time! How's Zushi doing?"

Gon was dancing around Killua ecstatically. "Say hi to Wing san and Zushi kun from me! Are they still training together?"

Killua waved Gon to calm down. "Oh, that's great. Hey, how would you like to come and do some further training with us here? We can spar with Zushi and help him develop his nen. Uh huh. Yes! That would be great? Great!"

In the background, Gon was shouting, "Yoshaaa! Zushi is coming to visit! I can't wait!"

"Truthfully," Killua said, raising his voice to try to drown out Gon's, "we have another potential disciple for you to train. Could you take a look when you come?"

There was silence as both Ema and Gon looked at Killua, who was listening intently to the phone.

"You will? Great! Catch the next flight over to the Strathian Continent. We'll see you soon!" Killua hung up, dropped his arm to the ground and gave a contented sigh.

"Ok, Ema chan, we'll get you a teacher for the hidden hunter exam," Killua said to her. "Now get out of here and give me some rest!"

Ema got up and bowed deeply. "Thank you so much!" She said and then ran out to the door.

* * *

In a dark assembly hall of one of the tall skyscrapers of Yorkshin City, dangerous people gathered. They were called there by the thought of bounty, thrill and revenge; five years before in the exact same location, hundreds of mafia members were slaughtered by a group known as the Phantom Troupe during the Yorkshin Auction. That incident caused a massive loss of wealth, power and control for the mafia community, and it had taken five years for new powers to rise, for wealth to start flowing in again, and for the mafia to once again govern the underground in Yorkshin City.

Their first order of business now that everything was back to normal - to get their revenge on the Spiders.

Sawada pushed the door open and went inside cautiously. He had managed to ditch Ursa his butler, but if he stayed too long, Ursa would get suspicious and start looking for him. He walked to the front of the room, past men with scars down their arms and giant weapons on their backs, until he reached the front stage. There, a man was sitting at a desk with a piece of paper in front of him.

"Hey, boy!" Someone grabbed Sawada by the shoulder and spun him around, inspecting his build. "You're too scrawny to join in the hunt. Come back when you're older, ok?"

"No, let him join," the man at the desk replied. "Even if you can't fight, you can be valuable for recon and other missions. Sign up here."

Sawada took the pen and stared at the contract. Killua's voice was ringing in his head, mocking derisively. _You're ten thousand years too early to take on the Spiders!_

_I'll show him,_ he thought. With a surprisingly steady hand, he put his name down on the form and signed it. He looked up at the man at the desk.

"I'm willing to do anything," he said, his eyes cold and serious. After all that the Phantom Troupe had taken away from him, he could only see one thing in his head - their destruction.

The man at the desk smiled a knowing smile. "Me too, my friend. Me too."

* * *

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See y'all next week!


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